Frozen: Cold War
by sonicking2004
Summary: The unexpected appearance and explosion of the Phoenix Gate in "The Rift" sent Elsa & friends to a world where Elsa's gifts are no longer as unique. Encountering new friends and foes with talents as wondrous as Elsa's own, she and her friends seek to return where they belong, but can even Elsa survive an encounter with her exact opposite? Precedes book 2, episode 30: The Library
1. Chapter 1: Confrontation

**Confrontation**

"What do you mean you 'don't know'?" Kristoff asked Elsa agitatedly, "How could you not know where or when we are!?"

"Take a look for yourself!" Elsa snapped at him as she gestured at the village down below, "Do _you_ recognize where we are?"

Kristoff looked past her at the village, then replied meekly, "Uh….no," then color returned to his face and voice as he continued, "But I'm just an ice cutter, and I was raised by the trolls, okay?"

Elsa nearly reminded him that he had been named Arendelle's Ice Master and Deliverer, but she refrained from doing so as she was seriously considering taking back the title at this point. It wasn't that he didn't deserve the title: Kristoff had gotten good enough at his job that he was one of the only ice cutters she knew of that could perform his job solo (duo if you counted Sven, the reindeer.) It's just that he was really getting on her nerves expecting her to have the answers to _everything!_

"Please everyone, calm down," Anna pleaded with them, "it's not going to do any good to panic. Let's just take a deep breath and work together to figure everything out so we can go home."

Elsa immediately felt bad. Her sister Anna had to be freaking out just as much as any of them about the possibility that they might not make it back home, but she was keeping it together better than the both of them combined was serving as their voice of reason, a role that Elsa should be taking herself as both the leader of a country and as Anna's older sister.

"You're right," Elsa told Anna, then she turned towards Kristoff and said, "Sorry."

"I'm sorry too, your Highness," Kristoff said back to her, looking just as ashamed as she felt.

As Anna climbed out of the sleigh she smiled and said, "Okay, now that we've got that settled, let's piece together what information we have thus far. Elsa, you said that Brooklyn touching something called the Phoenix Gate had sent us here?"

"Yes," Elsa confirmed as she and Kristoff stood before her, "it was a medallion that was so big. Looked like it was heavily damaged too, and when Brooklyn tried to pick it up, it exploded and a big fiery…bird thing came out of it."

"Makes sense," Kristoff said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Owen did warn us that the portal that would send us home was somewhat delicate and unstable. I guess it could not handle a giant flaming bird crashing through it."

Anna nodded as she continued, "And what about this place? Is there anything that we do know about where we are?"

"The area we're in doesn't seem to be very heavily populated, but there is a small village down below us," Elsa told her, "It seems to be oriental in nature, but I did not recognize the flag that one of the larger buildings was flying. It was red and had a black silhouette of a flame in the center. Of course that 'flag' could possibly have actually been a sign stating that building was scheduled for demolition by fire or something. The people we could see working in the field all were wearing outfits that were various shades of green, the same as the buildings in the village, and they were overseen by men wearing some sort of red samurai-style armor, so maybe this is some sort of work camp."

"And some of those armored guys were riding some sort of giant lizard things," Kristoff added, "They have two horns that curve down from the top of their heads and one that curves up from their snouts."

Elsa felt the ground starting to rumble under her feet as Anna's eye open wide and she points behind them as she says nervously, "You mean like those?"

Elsa and Kristoff whirl around to see three of the creatures Kristoff described charging up the slope that came around the edge of the cliff behind them and turn to head in their direction, each one mounted by an armored man. Feeling Kristoff tense up next to her, Elsa placed her hand on Kristoff's shoulder and shake her head no. They didn't know where they were or what these men wanted, but the last thing any of them needed was to start trouble with the locals before they absolutely had to.

As the riders came to a stop before Elsa and the others, Elsa heard one of them say, "I told you I saw something up here."

"You said you saw a giant ball of fire up here," a second man told the first disdainfully, "Do any of these people look like fire benders to you?"

"Look more like Water Tribe rebels to me," the third rider said.

_Fire benders? Water Tribe?_ Elsa though in confusion. She'd never heard of either of these terms before, but from the way that one of them thought they might be some sort of rebels indicated that this region was undergoing some sort of conflict, in which case these men could be part of an occupation force.

"Maybe they had some sort of bomb that had went off in their face?" the first rider suggested.

"You idiot, do you see any scorch marks around here?" the second rider chastised him, "Do any of them look as though they've been blackened by soot? How a mutton-head like you managed to get promoted to the Rough Riders baffles even me."

Elsa decided to take advantage of their confusion as their best bet to get out of this without incident. She approached the soldier who'd just berated his companion and gave him a winning smile as she said, "Excuse me, good sir, but my friends and I are travelling and seem to have gotten ourselves quite lost. Would you kindly tell us where we are and where we might find the closest town?"

The soldier appraised her up and down (Elsa wasn't sure if he was trying to determine if she was lying or if he was imagining her inappropriately, his face remained neutral) before he said, "You seem to have gotten yourselves quite off track then, miss. You're in the Hu Xin Provinces, at the heart of the Fire Nation Colonies. I'm afraid that you'll need traveling papers to be passing through here."

Elsa had never heard of these Hu Xin Provinces or the Fire Nation Colonies, but at least the flag they seemed to use makes sense now. The fact that they called themselves the "Fire Nation" didn't make Elsa too hopeful that they were too friendly, which likely meant that these "colonies" were possibly conquered territories. Still, Elsa wasn't ready to give up on a peaceful resolution yet.

"I guess we're even more lost than I originally thought," Elsa said, managing to sound sheepish, "I'm not familiar with this area at all. If you can point me the shortest way out of these 'Fire Nation Colonies' of yours then we won't trouble you any further and be on our way."

"You'd have to be really lost to have found your way here," the solder replied, sounding as if he hadn't really bought her story, "You should come with us to answer some questions. If you answer them satisfactorily, then we'll personally escort you to where you need to go."

This discussion was going downhill fast. She knew nothing of this place, so there was no way Elsa could consent to go along to be asked questions she wouldn't have any answers to. Even if she told them the truth, there was almost zero chance they would believe her. In addition, the men didn't look as though they were above using torture to get the answers they wanted, and Elsa had enough of that for several lifetimes. However, if she and the others ran now there was a good chance they would give chase, and Elsa didn't know how far they'd have to go to reach friendly territory, so Elsa gave the diplomatic approach one last try.

"I'm sorry, but that won't be possible, as we're on a tight schedule, and this little detour has made us late enough already," Elsa said, keeping her tone cordial, "And it sounds as though you and your men are busy enough as it is, so we won't take anymore of your time."

Elsa wasn't sure how they'd get Brooklyn into the sleigh, as he was very likely to weigh more than Kristoff was capable of lifting by himself, and Anna and herself wasn't going to be much help in that regard. Perhaps there was a way that she could use her powers to help him without raising the suspicions of these soldiers more than the already seem to be.

Before she could move to do so, the three riders dismounted and the one she'd been talking to took an aggressive stance before Elsa and let the menace into his voice as he said, "You seem to misunderstand, we're not asking: you kids are coming with us whether you want to or not."

_Okay, diplomacy's out,_ Elsa thought to herself as she let her eyes get hard and she said with steel and authority in her voice, "Actually, you seem to be the ones misunderstanding. We're not going anywhere with you and we're not asking permission. We're leaving here. Now."

Elsa started to turn to the others to ask them to help her load Brooklyn onto the sleigh when she saw in the corner of her eye the soldier begin to punch at her. Dodging out of instinct, she saw a jet of flame shoot out of his fist, just missing her and her friends. Elsa barely had time to register the shock that this man did with flame what she does with ice and snow before she saw the sleigh, the soldier's true target, burst into flames.

"Sven!" Kristoff yelled in desperation as he raced over to cut free the panicked reindeer. Not concerned about the consequences of revealing herself before these strangers any longer, Elsa raced to the sleigh and yelled at Kristoff "Move!" as she began an overhead chopping motion with her hand, forming a rapidly growing ice blade on her hand as she did so. As Kristoff dodged out of the way, Elsa sliced Sven's harnesses in one blow with an ice sword as long as her own body.

"Did you see that?" one of the soldiers asked the one who seemed to be in charge, "That one's a water bender!"

_Water bender?_ Elsa thought to herself, mulling over yet another strange terminology she'd heard since they'd gotten here as the one who'd been talking her took a fighting stance along side the other two as he said, "Okay, we're taking the three of you into custody on the authority of Lord Ozai!"

Elsa, who saw no choice but to try and take care of this quickly, assumed the ready stance that Demona had taught her as she said, "In. Your. Dreams."

Elsa had planned on trapping the three of them in blocks of ice as she constructed a new sleigh out of ice, then they'd use that to get away, but the soldiers struck so fast she barely had time to react. As the jets of flame shot simultaneously from the three soldiers fists, Elsa put everything she had into maintaining the ice wall before her, thankful that Demona's training had shortened the time she would have needed to get it in place, saving her sister and Kristoff from suffering painful burns.

"This is impossible!" Elsa heard one soldier exclaim as the blaze continued, "Just how much water does that bender have on her?"

"Who cares?" the first soldier retorted, "Just keep pouring it on! She can't keep this up forever, and once she runs out of water we'll have her!"

Elsa realized that soldier was right. She didn't know what he meant about her "running out of water," but the heat from their attacks was so much worse than what she'd suffered hanging inside the pirates' cage off the shores to Neverland. While she wasn't suffering from dehydration or heat exhaustion yet, it was only a matter of time before her strength failed her. If she'd been here by herself, Elsa was sure that she could take care of these men quickly, but it was taking everything she had to keep her sister from harm, and while the soldiers seemed to be paying Brooklyn's statue no heed, it looked as though it was still an hour from sunset, so that was no help.

As the heat from the fiery attack started to get to her, Elsa heard a male voice coming, not from in front or behind but rather from somewhere up above, as it exclaimed, "Toph, are you nuts!?"

Elsa looked up and her breath caught in her throat. Up in the air above them was a large flying...thing. Elsa didn't really know how else to describe it. It was hard to tell exactly what it was from this distance, but from the shadow it cast over them all Elsa could tell that it was _big_. It appear to have a large head and a broad tail that undulated up and down as if it were swimming through the air. It also had a number of appendages on either side. Elsa wasn't sure if they were legs or wings, but they were six in total.

It wasn't the sight of the beast that caused Elsa to gasp however, but rather the sight of the child rapidly falling towards them. It wasn't close enough for Elsa to tell if it was a boy or a girl but at the rate it was falling Elsa doubted that she'd be able to tell from what remains after this kid hits the ground. Elsa wanted to save this child but all of her resources we're being used to shield her friends and her self from the soldiers' blaze, and though she saw a couple more figures leap from the beast overhead (which was higher up than she thought) Elsa could tell that they had no chance of catching the child before he or she hit the ground, much last surviving the fall themselves.

When the kid hit the ground Elsa braced herself. Rather than witnessing the child's body being broken against the unforgiving ground, Elsa was shocked to see that it was the ground which broke under the child's bare feet. In fact, the hard ground ripples upon contact as if it were Lake of water and she was a large boulder that was thrown in it. As the ripples expanded outward, they grew shallower and smoothed out as they approached Elsa and her friends, while the ripples moving forward grew into large earthen waves which knocked the soldiers off their feet. As they got up again, the girl stomped her foot, causing a block of earth to fly up from the ground, which she then punched and it flew with such force that one man was knocked back down again while the other two scrambled out of the way.

Before Elsa could make heads or tails of what was happening, another shadow passing overhead caused Elsa to look up again. There she saw a boy and a girl just shy of Anna's age (likely the same two who Elsa saw leap from the strange beast earlier) gliding in using some sort of stick with wings. The girl had black hair and was somewhat dark skinned, although not as dark as Elisa was, and wore a full length dress that was dark blue with white highlights. The boy was fair skinned, wore a loose-fitting orange over-shirt over a loos-fitting one-piece suit, and his exposed arms and legs along with his clean-shaven head were adorned with tattoos of blue arrows.

"It's the Avatar! Call in reinforcements!" one of them cried out, "If we let him get away, Lord Ozai will have our heads!"

As one of the other soldiers pulled a horn from his waist and began to lift it to his lips, the young child (whom Elsa still couldn't tell whether it was a boy or a girl) stomped again and caused Brooklyn's stone form to bounce up and fly at the soldier getting ready to sound the alarm.

"No!" Elsa cried out as she unleashed a pair of simultaneous ice blasts from either hand, one which quickly and completely cocooned Brooklyn in an oblong orb of solid ice, and the other which created an ice slide which curved away from the soldier and gently sloped back down to the ground, finishing her work on both just as Brooklyn's frozen form struck the slide and slid along its length to land in a pile of slow Elsa created at the end. The soldier, wide eyed with terror at what nearly happened, scrambled back a few steps before blowing into his horn.

"What'd you do that for?" the young child, whom Elsa decided must be a girl from her voice, yelled at her in frustration.

Before Elsa could come up with a response, the young girl Elsa had seen gliding in dropped from the young boy's grasp to the ground below and ran towards the one blowing the horn as the boy glided towards the other two. As she watched, the girl in the blue outfit began making some fluid movements that seemed very familiar to her. Then to Elsa's astonishment, her ice slide, the remains of her ice wall, even the ice surrounding Brooklyn and the snow he was imbedded in; all of it turned into water and moved seemingly in accordance to her will. Elsa saw as this water blob floated in the air and elongated into a bulbous whip, which promptly smacked the horn out of the soldier's hands. Then it flowed over him and hardened back into ice again, immobilizing the soldier up to his neck. It was then that the memory stuck Elsa with the force of a lightning bolt: those were the same moves Demona had started to teach her!

As Elsa watched the boy wave his stick-thing (into which the wings had disappeared) and a gust of wind knocked the two soldiers into a tree behind them, she saw another wave of soldiers coming up the hill towards them, and though only a third of them were riding there were still more than double the original number than what they'd started out with. _Looks like we stirred up a real hornet's nest,_ Elsa sighed to herself, then she formed her ice gauntlets as she thought, _Fine then, let's do this! _ As she looked over at the youngest girl getting ready, however, Elsa decided some precautions were necessary. Elsa fired an ice blast at Brooklyn, encasing his stone form in ice again, and for added measure froze the ground under him as well.

"What!?" the little girl asked Elsa in irritation, though for some reason the girl didn't look Elsa in the eyes.

"Not him," Elsa told her evenly, "You may use whatever else you need to, but not him."

"Ugh! Fine, whatever," the girl grunted, then she muttered under her breath, "Stupid statue! Could have ended this already…"

_Yes, let's end this already!_ Elsa thought to herself,_ If these guys want to unleash a firestorm on us, then let's see how they feel about me unleashing a blizzard on them! _ Elsa then reached deep down inside herself and summoned up the strongest arctic winds she ever consciously used and directed it at the incoming force. Suddenly the charge was brought screeching to a halt as the men on foot were unable to make any headway in the wind, many of them being forced to drop to their hands and knees to prevent themselves from being blown over backwards. Even the men riding the large beasts were having difficulty as the desperately clung to the saddles as their mounts slowly made their way forward.

Then the girl in blue took some water from her pouch, converted it into small hailstones, and sent them into the gale-force winds even as the youngest girl in green did the same with regular stones. The shaved boy joined in then by waving his stick, increasing the force of the wind and finally unseating most of the riders, though a couple refused to give up, choosing to cling to the stirrup of their mount while it slowly dragged them along.

Finally, when it seemed that nothing was going to stop these men's advance, the beast Elsa saw from a distance in the air swooped in close over them. Elsa thought it was the strangest thing she'd seen yet: it looked kinda like a giant white-haired buffalo with six legs and a tail as flat as a beaver or a platypus, though the tail was just as furry on top as the rest of the beast. Elsa still thought it was a welcome sight, however, as it landed and waved its tail in the direction of the soldiers, increasing the strength of the wind to the point where even the large three-horned lizards were blown backwards.

As the terrified mounts ran of into the forest and down the slope, most of the soldiers were forced to chase after them to catch them, with only the one Elsa thought of as being their leader staying behind for a moment to yell at them, "This isn't over, Avatar! We'll be back!" Then he hurried after his men.

"What were you thinking, Toph? " a young man Elsa hadn't noticed before yelled down from the large basket like saddle on the giant beast, "I like bashing Fire Nation heads as much as the next guy, but doesn't waiting to start until after we've landed seem like a good idea!?"

"Sokka calm down," the girl in blue said soothingly to the older boy, "We are all fine, and we were able to save these people from those soldiers."

" No, I will not calm down, Katara! Maybe Aang would be ok, seeing as though he's the Avatar and an airbender, so he can do that 'whoosh' thing, " Sokka said as he made a swooping gesture with his hand, "and you went off with Aang, so I knew he wouldn't let you fall." Sokka then turned towards the little girl, who by processes of elimination Elsa figured was Toph, "But you, Toph, had jumped off well ahead of everybody, and last I checked your bending talents do not include flying! What were you thinking!?"

"I was thinking that I'm the greatest earthbender in the world, and that a little fall like that couldn't possibly hurt me," Toph replied with a smug tone in her voice, and Elsa noticed that even though she looked in his general direction, Toph didn't look Sokka in the eyes as she talked.

"A 'little fall'!?" Sokka exclaimed, "Did you not see just how high up we were!?"

"Uh, hello? Of course I did not 'see' how high we were," Toph said as she waved her hand obliquely in front of her face, then with a bird-eating grin Toph asked him with a smug tone, "Why? How high were we? Tell me just how great I was."

Sokka growled in frustration as he dragged his fingers down his face, but decided not to encourage Toph any further by answering her question: a wise decision in Elsa's view. Then, as if she knew Elsa was thinking of her, Toph pointed in Elsa's direction and said to everyone, "What I'd like to know is what is Miss Tinkle Britches' malfunction? I could have ended this fight before that soldier had sounded the alarm, but she acted as if that statue was more important to her than her own skin!"

Elsa was about to explain that Brooklyn was more than a mere statue, that if Toph's hurling him at the soldier had broken him then that would mean his death, but then Toph's slight at her sunk through her jangled nerves and she asked in confusion and irritation, " 'Miss Tinkle Britches'?" Since the time she'd accidentally revealed her powers to everyone she'd endured a number of insults, mostly along the lines of "monster" or "witch", but something like "Miss Tinkle Britches" just seemed so juvenile and completely out there that it baffled Elsa that someone would place that label on her.

As she heard Anna suppress a snicker Elsa groaned quietly to herself. She knew exactly why Anna found that nickname amusing: that was exactly the same nickname Elsa gave Anna years ago, long before the accident that separated them for years. Back when Elsa first showed Anna her wintery talent, Anna had gotten so excited that she had literally wet herself, and so she gave Anna that nickname and used it for a long time until her father chided Elsa for it, claiming that it was mean-spirited and quite undignified for someone like them.

"Yeah," Toph said as she faced her and grabbed a handful of the fabric of the dress Elsa was wearing, though she still did not meet her eyes as she continued, "I don't know what material this outfit you're wearing is made from, but it sounds like about a million wind chimes to me. You might find it soothing, but it's starting to give me a headache!"

"What are you talking about?" Elsa asked Toph, even more confused and irritated than before, "I don't hear anyth…" Elsa trailed off as all the various bits of information clicked into place: the fact that Toph would not meet anyone's gaze when she talked to them, how she apparently heard things no one else there did, and her comment to Sokka about how she didn't "see" how high they were above the ground. "I'm so sorry," Elsa sincerely apologized, "I didn't realize…"

"That I'm so amazing?" Toph guessed, "That your outfit is impractical for traveling? That your making a big deal over that statue had endangered your friends?"

"That you're blind," Elsa said morosely, feeling bad that she had allowed herself to get irritated over this child's projected attitude. Elsa figured that she acted this way so as to dissuade anyone who might take advantage of her handicap, that she may also be too proud to ask for or accept charity based on pity for the same. Still, Elsa felt a need to make Toph understand that she indeed regretted treating her so brusquely. As her hand reached out towards Toph, however, Toph fiercely smacked it away and crossed her arms as she said, "Don't even think it, lady! I'm not some helpless little kid who needs to be coddled, her head patted and to be guided around be the hand! In case you hadn't noticed, I'm the one who saved your butts. Besides, I can see what I need to."

When Elsa looked at Katara in confusion, Katara explained, "She means that she can see through her earthbending. Her feet pick up on the vibrations in the earth, and that gives her a pretty good picture of what all is happening around her. That's why she goes around barefoot, as shoes make it somewhat more difficult for her to 'see'."

"That's pretty neat!" Anna said, obviously impressed.

"Absolutely," Elsa agreed, then she turned back to Toph and said, "I'm sorry if I offended you, as that was not my intention. I merely was trying to apologize properly for having misunderstood you."

Toph shrugged and said, "It's cool. I'm sorry if I overreacted as well. It's just that I had my fill of overprotective behavior from my parents. I even had to learn earthbending on my own, as they believed my blindness made me too 'helpless and fragile' to be able to control it properly."

"I think I can relate somewhat," Elsa told her sympathetically, thinking back on her own complicated relationship with her parents and her powers prior to their being lost at sea. Then she concentrated on her dress, modifying it to a tight fitting outfit similar in style to the one Sokka was wearing, though it had her own lighter color scheme as well as the snowflake design flourishes similar to the dress she wore before. As Katara and the two boys with her goggled at Elsa, she focused on Toph, whose expression merely looked puzzled as Elsa asked her, "Is that better?"

"Quite a bit, actually," Toph replied smiling, "It now sounds more like a hundred wind chimes rather than a million. Much more soothing, thanks!"

"She….she just waterbent her outfit!" Katara said in disbelief.

"Wow, impressive!" Sokka said in admiration, then he turned and smirked at Katara as he continued, "She just may be better at waterbending than you, sis." Elsa saw Katara glare at Sokka, then she had to stifle a giggle as Katara caused a bit of ice remaining by itself on the ground, turned it into a water globule, then flung it at her brother's face in the form of a snowball.

Aang, whose face was filled with confusion, said uncertainly, "I don't understand. I thought that she was an airbender."

Katara looked at Aang sympathetically as she said, "I'm sorry, Aang, but I don't think so. The wall she'd created to shield herself from the firebenders' attacks, and what she did to that creepy statue, both of those are definitely waterbender techniques. Although I didn't see the source of water she used, nor do I understand how she did what she did to her outfit, but maybe those were just advanced techniques Master Paku hadn't got around to teaching us before we had to leave the Northern Water Tribe."

"But when she helped us drive off the Fire Nation reinforcements, it was definitely wind that she'd used," Aang insisted, "How could she do that if she wasn't an airbender?"

"I did see snowflakes in that wind she'd directed at those soldiers, so maybe she was simply bending them with such force and speed that they created that wind," Katara explained in that same sympathetic tone, "I know how much you'd like to believe that you're not the last of your people, but I'm afraid it's simply not possible for her to be both an airbender and a waterbender. The only one who can control more than one element is the Avatar, and that's you, Aang."

"Excuse me for a moment, but I'm just not understanding any of this," Elsa said to them, which got their attention back on her, "So far I've heard about earthbending, which Toph here can do, and firebending, which I guess is what those soldiers used on me, then airbending and waterbending, both of which you guys and those soldiers thought I could do. Just what is this 'bending' you're referring to? What is this place?"

"You're kidding, right?" Sokka asked Elsa. When she shook her head no, Sokka asked in disbelief, "Seriously? Everybody in the world, even those who are unable to do so, knows about the ability to bend to bend either air, water, earth or fire. Just where did you people come from?"

"Not entirely sure," Elsa admitted, "but if I were to hazard a guess, it's probably the future."

This time all of Katara's friends goggled at Elsa.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a forest not all that far away, three large yet slender crested lizards make their way through before being pulled to a stop by a tug on their reins by their riders. Though the three couldn't look more different in facial expressions or clothing styles, the fact that the ladies practically rode in formation and were all dressed in shades of red marked them as a unit better than any uniform or insignia would. As one dismounted, she picked up some course white fur from the ground. Though most of her black hair was tied in a top knot adorned with a flame-shaped headpiece, a couple of bangs hung down on either side of her face, framing it perfectly as it lit up with a cruel smile while she said, "We're back on the right track."


	2. Chapter 2: Flight

**Flight**

As Elsa gritted her teeth against the cacophonous sound, she decided that there was something even more aggravating than the attitude Kristoff had briefly taken upon awakening in this strange place: Sokka's laughter. This laughter wasn't even infectious nor did it serve to lighten the mood. It was merely loud and obnoxious. Even worse, he was laughing _at her_! Ever since she had learned the true method for controlling her powers Elsa had felt no need for her old mantra, but if there was ever a time for "Conceal, don't feel" it was in the face of this ponytailed hyena here: she felt she was merely two guffaws away from giving Sokka the ultimate cold shoulder.

"Stop it, Sokka, you're being very rude!" Katara snapped at him, then he glanced over at Elsa and her friends with a look that seemed to say _Sorry about him_, and Elsa felt grateful that she hadn't joined on openly mocking her

"Sorry, Katara, but I can't help it," Sokka said as he wiped tears of mirth from his eyes, then he said in a tone that conveyed his disbelief, "You're telling me that you guys are from some 'kingdom' called Arendelle, which may or may not be in the future, where stone-like beings called trolls possess magical healing powers and can turn into boulders?"

"Actually it's that when they're curled up they resemble boulders, but the rest was more or less correct," Anna corrected him with a smile, though Elsa could tell from a look in Anna's eyes that Sokka had gotten on the wrong side of her as well, "I'm kinda surprised that someone as simple-minded like you could grasp that much, that there's much more on your mind besides food and coming up with lame jokes."

"Ha!" Toph guffawed as she pointed directly at Sokka without looking at him, and Elsa marveled again at how this girl was able to "see" while being blind, "Looks like she's got you pegged."

Sokka briefly gave her a dirty look, then he walked over to where Brooklyn's stone form, rapping his knuckles on Brooklyn's head as he said, "And you're claiming ol' stone face here is really a flesh and blood being that's only stone during the day, and that he comes from even further in the future, where the town's buildings are so tall you can't see the tops from the ground."

"His name is Brooklyn," Elsa said through gritted teeth, "and yes, he enters his stone sleep at sunrise, then at sunset he sheds his stone skin and is able to move again."

"We've all encountered stranger things in our time together," Aang said amiably to Sokka, "Remember when Hei Bai took you into the spirit world, or those things that we all experienced during our time in the swamp?"

"Oh please," Sokka said dismissively, "we were all hungry and lost, and the rest was some funky old guy bending the water in the vines and you doing your Avatar thing. And I'm not sure how much I buy about this hokey Spirit World mumbo-jumbo."

"Even though your own girlfriend became a Spirit herself?" Katara said semi-mockingly.

"Hey! Yue is different, okay!?" Sokka snapped back at her.

"I agree that it all sounds rather strange," Toph said with her head cocked at an odd angle, "but I feel that Miss Tinkle Britches is telling the truth."

"Toph, Toph, Toph," Sokka said condescendingly, "You may be one of the most talented earthbenders that we had ever met, right next to Bumi, the king of Omashu, but it seems that your life of being isolated by your parents has left you hopelessly naïve if you're buying the story they're telling."

Toph frowned in anger then, then she stomped her feet and a slab of earth under Sokka's feet abruptly lifted up at a 45 degree angle, causing him to yelp first in surprise then in pain as he fell backwards and landed on his rump.

Getting a kick at seeing out of seeing others vent their frustration at Sokka, Elsa caught out of the corner of her eye the sight of the sky rapidly darkening and changing colors. Looking back at Sokka, who she knew was about to eat some serious crow, Elsa smiled smugly at him as she said, "Well we'll see soon enough just how much truth my story has in it. Sunset is here."

With this announcement hanging in the air, all eyes (save Toph's, of course) focused on Brooklyn's still form. As the sun finished sinking beneath the horizon, Toph's face fell and she whirled towards Brooklyn with a wide stance as she cried out, "I feel it! There's another heartbeat over there!"

"Uh, Toph? I think that you need to get your feet chec…." Sokka started to say before he was interrupted by the sound of a stone cracking, the report causing most of Aang's group to jump in startlement. Then everyone watched as the cracks increased in frequency both audibly and visibly in Brooklyn's still form until he suddenly stretched and flexed where he lied, causing stone flakes to fly off his red winged form, his roar startling nearby birds from their perches. Brooklyn then sat up and looked around at his unfamiliar surroundings, eyeing Aang's group with suspicion, then his eyes widened as he caught sight of the giant furry creature with them, who lumbered forward on its six legs and proceeded to soak Brooklyn with a single lick of its huge tongue. Then, as Brooklyn dried his face and shook the slobber off his hands, he caught sight of Elsa and her friends and asked her, "Queen Elsa? What is going on around here?"

Aang and his friends focused their wide eyes on Elsa again as Katara said in surprise, " 'Queen'?"

Elsa felt somewhat sheepish as she said, "I may have neglected to mention that I'm the Queen of Arendelle."

Brooklyn looked back and forth between Elsa and Aang and his friends, then he focused on Elsa and said, "Maybe you ought to start again from the beginning."

The others waited patiently as Elsa recounted for him the moments before they left New York: how Alexander (possessing Lexington's body) cast the spell that created the portal that would lead them home. How before they could pass through it the Phoenix Gate crashed right next to the portal. She told Brooklyn that when he touched it, the Gate exploded, and that the fireball swallowed him shortly before coming into contact with their portal, which exploded as well. Then Elsa moved on to their awakening in this strange place, with Brooklyn already in his stone sleep. How Elsa and her friends had been attacked by armored men who shot fire from their hands and rode giant lizard things, how they were saved by Aang and his friends, each of whom seemed to have their own unique gift of their own.

"So those guys," Brooklyn asked as he gestured over towards Aang his friends, "they're like you?"

"Well, similar maybe," Elsa replied, "Most of them, anyway. The only skill I've seen Ponytail there display is with his mouth."

"That's Mr. Ponytail to you, Your Highness," Sokka said irritably, "and I also happen to be a warrior with mad boomerang skills!"

"Uh-huh," Elsa replied uninterested, then she turned back to Brooklyn and continued, "Also I've been told that not everyone can do the things that they do. Those who can control the elements, or as the refer to it as 'bending', can only control a single element: either earth, water, wind, or fire."

"Except for Aang," Katara added, "As the Avatar, he's the only person this generation who is capable of mastering all four elements and restoring balance to the world."

"Huh," Brooklyn said as he looked over at Aang, "Kid seems kinda young to have the weight of the world on his shoulders."

Elsa noticed that Aang was not looking at Brooklyn, however, but instead he was staring at her with an expression she couldn't easily read. "Excuse me for asking," Aang asked politely, "but this explosion that you mentioned, what did it look like again?"

Elsa wasn't sure why Aang was so interested in the appearance of the explosion, but she saw no harm in describing it to him again. "Once if fully emerged from the Gate, it looked like a giant bird of flame," Elsa told him again, then she wend into detail about the shape of its wings and beak, the size and shape of its neck, and so on. When she was finished, Aang burst out, "You guys met Aion?"

Everyone, both Elsa's friends and Aang's, stared at Aang. Katara broke the silence when she asked, "Aang, you know what she's talking about?"

"I can't be sure," Aang admitted, "but what Elsa described sounds a lot like Aion."

"Hello, Twinkle Toes?" Toph called out, "Who or what is an 'Aion'?"

"Aion's a spirit," Aang explained, "The great Spirit of Eternity. He watches over and maintains the time-stream, making sure it flows the way that it's supposed to: Day to Night, Past to Present, Summer to Fall and so on. We met over 100 years ago, during one of the expeditions I went on with Monk Gyatso."

"Great, so now there's a 'Spirit of Time'. Oooooooo!" Sokka said sarcastically while making hand gestures as if he were some sort of ghost, stopping when Katara punched him in the arm.

"How did I manage to get stuck with such an immature, nut-brained brother like you?" Katara asked irritably, "We already know about the spirits of the Moon and Ocean, and you were personally taken into the Spirit World by Hei Bai, the spirit of that Earth Kingdom forest the Fire Nation burned down, so why can't there be a spirit that watches over time?"

"Please, Katara," Sokka retorted in disbelief, "The change from day to night isn't managed by some hokey spirit, but rather by the sun going around the Earth."

"Actually day and night is the result of the Earth spinning in place, with us either facing towards or away from the sun determining what time it is, while the seasons are created by our planet moving around the sun," Elsa corrected him. She almost corrected herself and told them about the fairies who maintain the change of seasons, but after seeing the looks that Aang's group gave her about _this_ revelation she decided to keep that part to herself. Then something that Aang said struck her. "You said that this Aion was a spirit that watched over the time-stream, right?" Elsa asked him with a mounting excitement. When Aang nodded yes, Elsa continued, "That would mean he would make sure that people and things would remain in the time periods where they belong, and any that found themselves out of their time he would return them?"

Aang shrugged as he said, "I guess so."

Anna's face lit up as she caught on to where her sister was going. "That means that he can take us back home!"

Elsa beamed back at her sister as she nodded, then she turned back towards Aang and asked, "Do you know where this Aion is?"

"Well, Aion is the Spirit of Eternity, so he kind of exists everywhere and everywhen all at once, but the shrine where I encountered him with Monk Gyatso is not that far from here," Aang told her, "Appa, my Sky Bison, can fly there in about a day."

"Could you take us there?" Anna eagerly asked him before Elsa could manage to.

"Sure, I don't see why not," Aang agreed without hesitation, "It's not like we're currently doing anything."

" 'Not doing anything'?" Sokka asked irritably, "_Hello?_ Aang, did you forget that Sozin's Comet is due to arrive in just a few months? Avatar Roku told you that you need to defeat the Firelord before it arrives, so we can't afford any distractions!"

"It's not like going a day in one direction is going to affect the outcome in one way or another," Aang reasoned with him, "I'll still be training in Water and Earth, and once I've mastered them we'll head to the Fire Nation to find someone who's willing to teach me Fire Bending. Besides, Elsa's arrival is the closest thing I have to being able to train with another airbender."

Sokka dragged his fingers down his face in frustration, then he stalked off in the opposite direction. Toph then called out, "If Sokka's done complaining, then we really ought to get going before those Rough Rhinos get the rocks to come back with more of their friends."\

"She's right," Elsa agreed, her back straightening wit authority as she thought of all those who were counting on her to get herself and her friends home, "The sooner we find this Aion, the sooner we all can get back to doing what we're supposed to be doing."

As she turned towards the giant creature, the "Sky Bison" as Aang referred to it to (it did look kind of like a bison to her), Elsa noticed that Kristoff wasn't in that direction. Looking around, she found him over by the ruined sleigh, apparently looking for anything that might me salvageable. It seemed that he was coming up mostly empty, however, as the fire had claimed practically everything it could.

"I'm sorry about the sleigh," Elsa apologized as she looked into his remorseful face, "I'll contract you a new one once we get back home."

Kristoff met her gaze, and though his eyes retained the sadness he gave her a grateful smile as he said, "Hey, you saved Sven. That's far more important, for as you pointed out the sleigh can be replaced: Sven can't. Still, I would have liked to hold on to one new sleigh for more than a year."

Elsa smiled at the reminder that Kristoff had just finished paying off his new sleigh when Anna had "hired" him to go after her when Elsa ran away following her coronation, and that during the expedition his sleigh got destroyed then too. "Come on," Elsa said sympathetically, "Let's go."

As they turned back towards the others, Elsa saw Aang looking over all of them, going over something in his head. "I just realized that Appa has never carried this many people before, so it might actually take longer than I anticipated."

"You see?" Sokka said to Aang, "This venture was doomed before it even began! You should just point the direction they need to go and let them make it there on their own."

"Sokka!" Katara chided him, but Sokka wasn't listening as his eyes had just lighted on Sven, and Elsa noticed that he was drooling slightly as he drew an unusually shaped sword and said, "Then again, we could always use more supplies, and since you don't have a sleigh anymore I imagine that deer-thing would taste well with a nice braise…"

Before Elsa cold react or anyone could blink, Sokka found Kristoff towering over him, glowering down at him and gripping his climbing pick tightly as he growled, "If you go anywhere near Sven with your weird little sword I will shove it down your throat, then I'll jam my pick right up…"

"Oookay! Message received," Sokka chuckled nervously, "No venison for dinner tonight. Backing away now."

Aang chuckled once, then he went back to musing over the problem. "I suppose that I could let Katara guide Appa while I fly by myself along side you guys," Aang thought aloud, then he turned to Brooklyn and called out, "Say you….Brooklyn, was it?"

"That's correct," Brooklyn confirmed, "What's up?"

"Those wings of yours," Aang asked him, "Can you fly with them?"

Brooklyn wet his fingertip then felt the breeze. He then shook his head and said, "I can't fly, only glide, and I don't think I can get high enough in those trees to get a strong enough wind to carry me."

"You need wind?" Aang said excitedly, "Why didn't you say so?" Then Aang waived his staff-thing at the gargoyle, and Brooklyn yelped as a strong sudden updraft carried him up into the sky. Straining her eyes, Elsa spotted the familiar form of the gargoyle tumble briefly at the apex of the upburst before he recovered and began gliding, and she heard him groan briefly in pain before hollering back down to them, "That'll work."

Aang smiled at his own brilliance as he said, "So that's two down. Of course that deer of yours is still rather heavy, but I gathered from earlier that he's as dear to you as Appa and Momo is to me, so I guess leaving him behind wouldn't even be a question."

Elsa nodded in confirmation, but her eyes remained locked on Aang's staff, an idea coming to her. "That staff of yours, you fly around on it?"

"You mean my glider?" Aang replied, glancing briefly at it, "Yeah, I use it to glide on the air that I bend underneath me."

"Could I see it for a moment?" Elsa asked, intrigued.

"Sure," Aang agreed, then he extended the wings and tailfin from the staff, then he handed it over to Elsa. She examined it closely, noting how the semi-circular fabric at both ends flexed between the braces that it was attached to, then she held the glider in her left hand as she concentrated on her right. The others gasped (Aang's group louder than Elsa's) as ice formed in her closed fist. As they watched, the ice took form, and before long Elsa held in her right hand a life-size replica of Aang's glider made entirely of ice and frost.

"Wow," Katara exclaimed in admiration, "that's pretty!"

"Yeah, sure," Sokka said, unimpressed, "but will it fly?"

"Only one way to find out," Elsa said as she handed Aang back his glider. She then gripped the outer braces of her own, adjusting her grip as she saw how Aang took hold of his. Then, as she summoned up a strong arctic wind, Elsa gasped as she quickly found herself airborne. Once she was able to catch her breath, Elsa looked down and saw the specks below her (which she figured out was he sister and the others) moving towards the larger white shape of Appa. Once she got over the shock and surprise, Elsa laughed in exhilaration. She was flying! Not merely sliding around on an ice slide or riding in a sleigh sprinkled with pixie dust, she was moving through the air under her own power! Out of all the things she had done with her gift thus far, this by far had to be the best! It was no wonder her sister spent every moment she could flying while she was able, and why she seemed so disappointed when the dust finally wore off!

As Elsa tried to turn in the air, her glider wobbled, and Elsa's heart sped in fear that she might actually fall, then Aang came up alongside her. "Like this!" Aang called out, and Elsa watched as Aang leaned his weight to one side, and his glider banked and turned in that direction. Mimicking his actions, Elsa found that she was able to turn easily. Elsa then observed as Aang made other aerial maneuvers and copied them too. As the flying bison got nearer to them with the others aboard, Brooklyn glided in close to them and said to Aang as he rubbed one wing, "That's an interesting gift you have there, kid. A little warning next time might be nice, though. A sudden gust like that is kinda hard on the wings."

Aang chuckled sheepishly as he said, "Sorry about that."

"So which way do we go?" Katara asked as she sat behind Appa's head and held on his reigns.

Aang pointed at a mountain in the distance and said, "Over there. The shrine I visited with Gyatso is about halfway up the slope. We'll still need to stop and rest before we get there, though, and maybe we can get some training done in the meantime."

Brooklyn nodded in agreement as he added, "Preferably before sunrise, otherwise you'll be picking up pieces of me all over the countryside."

Elsa nodded in understanding, and even through the exhilaration of the trip she thought_, This is it! It's nearly over! Mom, Dad, we're coming home!_

* * *

Meanwhile in another part of the woods, the riders who first confronted Elsa and the others have reclaimed their mounts and now are bowing before a trio of ladies, fear being the most visible emotion in the men's eyes.

"Tell me what happened again," the woman in the center coldly, her raven hair bound in a small bobtail with a flame shaped ornament centered in it.

"Princess Azula, your Highness, we confronted a trio of suspicious people on the cliffside near the colony in the Hu Xin Province," their leader relied in a shaky voice, "We confirmed that the one with pure white hair was a waterbender, or at it seemed she was, but before we could apprehend her the Avatar and his associates interfered. Reinforcements from the colony showed up to assist us, but I'm afraid that their combined force was too much for us."

"And so you ran away," Azula finished for him in a dangerous voice.

"Please, your highness, what we were up against, we never faced anything like it," the man pleaded with her, "We might have been able to handle the Avatar himself, perhaps a handful of allied benders as well, but there was no way we were prepared to handle _two_ Avatars!"

" 'Two Avatars'?" Azula asked him incredulously, her eyebrow raised to accentuate her disbelief.

"The white haired woman in the group we found near the colony, the one we thought was a waterbender," the man explained, "she is no mere waterbender."

"Colonel, have you been drinking?" Azula chided him.

"When I first tried to apprehend them, she created a blade of ice to sever the harness tying their animal to the burning sleigh," the Colonel explained, "However, when the reinforcements arrived following the Avatar's arrival, the woman used airbending to create a huge wind to hold them at bay until the others could join in to help drive us all off."

"That's impossible. There is only ever one Avatar at any given time," Azula countered, "A new Avatar is only born when the first one dies. The only airbender around is the Avatar, so he must have been the one who made the wind that gave you trouble."

"I assure you, your Highness, it was the woman," the Colonel told her again, "I felt as though I was in the middle of a blizzard when the woman started, then the Avatar's waterbender and earthbender companions joined in, followed by the Avatar himself, then finally his flying beast…"

"Enough!" Azula barked, her patience clearly at an end, "Colonel Mongke, your staggering incompetence is only rivaled by your excuses. If I weren't on such a tight timetable, I would punish you myself. As it is, I have a mission for you through which you may yet redeem yourself. I have reports that my brother who failed our nation and uncle who betrayed it are in the area. I would pursue it except I'm currently on this trail, and I don't have time to go after both before our operation at Ba Sing Se, so I'm charging you with the apprehension of my estranged relatives."

"Of course, your Highness," Colonel Mongke told her with a deeper bow, "I won't let you down."

"For your sake, you better not," Azula told him menacingly, "You would not want to face my father if you do."

As the Colonel and his men ride off, the girl with a long ponytail said to Azula, "You really think that his story is made up?"

"No, Ty Lee, he was in too much fear dare lie to me," Azula told her, "He may have been hallucinating what he saw, but the addition of another waterbender enabling them to drive off such a large gathering of our men, including the Rough Rhinos, certainly is troubling. We may have to proceed with caution here, as this waterbender may prove to be trouble."

"But do we have the time to waste on this?" asked the other girl in a tone that sounded as bored as the look on her face, "I know that your father would like for you to capture the Avatar, but he specifically placed you in charge of the operation to conquer Ba Xing Se."

"Weren't you just complaining about being bored of having nothing to do, Mai?" Azula replied to her, "Besides, these Mongoose Dragons will allow us to easily track down and capture the Avatar and still make it to the Serpent's Pass before the operation launches, and the sight of the Avatar as our prisoner is certain to break the wills of the Earth Kingdom Army as easily as our machine will break their supposedly impenetrable wall. Anyway, I'm intrigued by this new waterbender the Colonel mentioned. If half of what he said about her is true, then she may prove just a good of a prize to present to my father as the Avatar himself."


	3. Chapter 3: Stalked

**Stalked**

_14 hours from now, at the Eternal Shrine…_

The large crack of thunder was startling, as was the blinding flash that was out of place in this cave, but it was the cry of agony accompanying it that cut Elsa to the bone. This cry almost didn't even sound human, though Elsa would have recognized it as having been uttered by her sister even if she had not seen Anna screaming with her own eyes. Elsa thought she herself might have been screaming in fear and dismay, though she could not hear it over Anna's own cries and the report of the lightning that was striking her upraised frying pan.

Though it seemed like an eternity to Elsa, the lightning and Anna's screams quickly came to an end, and with their cessation Anna collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut, though her grip on her skillet remained as rigid as ever. Elsa raced forward, catching her sister before she could either hit the ground or the cave's rocky wall behind her, but it no longer mattered. Anna was like a rag doll in her sister's arms, her eyes dull and lifeless. Elsa had only ever seen Anna's eyes like this once before, on the day Elsa's own power accidentally froze Anna solid from the inside. However, those orbs were hard and blue, while these were soft and white, and that made this moment seem even more impossibly wrong.

"No, no, no, no, please Anna, no…" Elsa pleaded with her sister, but Anna didn't respond to either the sound of Elsa's voice nor to the warmth of Elsa's embrace, and though she was still warm Elsa could feel the warmth of Anna's body quickly dissipating. As Elsa's consciousness threatened to collapse under the weight of the impossibility of this moment, a new sound cut through it and forced itself into her awareness, a sound which calcified every muscle in Elsa's body and transformed the pain threatening to tear her heart apart: the sound of laughter. Cruel, sadistic, insane laughter…

* * *

Now…

It was just over a couple hours from sunrise when they landed in a clearing large enough to accommodate them all. In truth she was almost sad that she had to end her flight now. However, she was starting to get rather hungry, and Brooklyn would be too heavy for her to catch if he turned to stone up here, so out of necessity she touched down as Aang and Brooklyn landed behind her.

"I still cannot believe that you're not really an airbender," Aang said as he twirled his staff to close the wings up within it, "You're a natural flyer."

"Thanks," Elsa responded, "the fact is that I have not heard of 'airbenders' before today, nor had I heard of 'waterbenders' or any other sort of 'bender' for that matter.

"You're kidding!" Katara said as she approached them with her load she'd brought down from Appa, "They don't have anyone who can bend any of the elements where….that is, when you come from?"

"Not as far as I'm aware," Elsa told them, "Far as I know, I'm the only one in my time who has abilities that come close to matching yours. While it has had its good moments, like just a moment ago in fact, in the main this gift if mine had brought nothing but trouble."

"What could have happened to all the benders?" Aang asked her.

"I really don't know," Elsa admitted, "The first time I even heard of a civilization like yours was when I was in Brooklyn's time, and that was when Demona was teaching me moves like that which Katara was using, moves she said she learned about from an ancient scroll she'd found."

"This Demona had a waterbending scroll?" Katara asked with interest.

"I guess so," Elsa told her, "It didn't seem to let me move water in the way you can, at least I didn't think to attempt to do so, and I didn't get to practice much with it anyway, but the routine did seem to give me a better handle on my powers and I found it rather relaxing."

Brooklyn sighed and said, "I really don't understand what it is that you see in Demona, Queen Elsa."

Elsa nodded in understanding as she said, "I get that there must be some bad blood between you and Demona. I understand that her stance on humans must have drove a wedge between you guys…"

"Not to mention that she tricked me into stealing a spell for her that made Goliath her slave," Brooklyn jumped in, "or all the times she tried to kill me and my brothers, or that she contracted second-rate clones of us."

Elsa nodded again as she continued, "…but I believe that she's a good person who lost her way a long time ago. I think I might have turned her around had Goliath not shown up when he had, as her grudge against him seemed rather strong. She's been nothing but good to me."

"Well I think that she might have just been manipulating you in order to use your powers to further her own agenda," Brooklyn countered, then he sighed and said, "but I guess that's neither here nor there. With any luck we'll be on our separate ways tomorrow, you to your home and me to mine, and it's highly unlikely that you'll ever get to see Demona again since the Phoenix Gate is nothing but scrap, so I suppose it's best to just let the matter drop."

"Thank you, Brooklyn," Elsa said gratefully.

"Well, now that we got that touchy-feely nonsense out of the way, what are we going to do about dinner?" Sokka asked them, "We don't exactly have enough supplies to feed an additional three people, unless you guys had changed your mind about us cooking up the deer, of course."

When Kristoff glared at Sokka and started to grip his pick, Sokka quickly backed up a couple of steps and said hastily, "It was just a suggestion!"

Fortunately it turned out that Brooklyn was an excellent hunter, though his encounter with this world's fauna had mixed results. At first Brooklyn went after a giant boar only to find out (before Aang and Katara could warn him) that its bristly hairs were actually porcupine-like quills. Luckily Elsa and Aang's friends were able to drive it off before Brooklyn could get more seriously hurt. Afterwards, Brooklyn rounded up a bunch of odd looking birds, asking the others uneasily, "Will these be okay? They're not going to be venomous or start breathing fire, are they?"

Katara shook her head and replied, "They're just a bunch of turkey-ducks and rooster-pigeons. They should be fine after being cooked up properly."

Brooklyn shook his head and said, "You people have some rather strange animals in this world."

"Said the large winged creature that turns to stone during the day," Sokka chimed in, "Now let's hurry and get cooking, I'm starving!"

As Sokka and Kristoff prepared the gathered poultry and Toph used her gift to prepare the seating area, Elsa, Anna, Katara and Brooklyn helped Aang gather various edible fruits and vegetables, of which a large portion would be for Aang as he'd told Elsa that he doesn't eat meat. Of course Aang and Katara were a huge help in determining what was edible and what wasn't, as the flora of this place was as odd as the fauna.

Elsa and the others got back from their gathering just as Kristoff and Sokka finished cooking the birds. Then Katara used some blades sheet formed using water from a nearby earthen pot to debone the poultry onto an ice tray Elsa had created, then she diced the meat along with some of the vegetables that they'd gathered, then Katara scraped everything back into the pot the water blades to the pot as well.

"Efficient," Elsa complimented her technique, then as the mixture was brought to a boil Elsa took a whiff of the aromatic steam and smiled, saying "Smells like Mom's chicken soup." Elsa's face then fell slightly as she added, "At least, from what I remember of her cooking."

Katara got a look on her face that was part sympathetic, part longing as she smiled and asked, "What's she like, your mother?"

Elsa returned her smile as she replied, "She was smart, kind, beautiful. I've had people tell me that if I had brown hair that I would have looked exactly like her, though I don't really see it."

"Wait just a moment," Sokka interrupted after Katara slapped his hand when she caught him trying to steal a taste of the soup, "Your mother was a Queen, right? What was she doing cooking? Didn't you guys have servants to do that kind of thing for you?"

"Sokka!" Katara chided him.

"No, it's all right," Elsa said with a chuckle, "He's not entirely wrong. We did have servants who did the cooking for the most part. However, when it came to special occasions like birthdays and whatnot Mom liked to take matters into her own hands, and whenever one of us got sick or hurt Mom would cook us something special to help us get better. Her chicken soup was her 'special remedy' she made whenever one of us got sick, and she always made enough to give each of us a bowl. Of course it was usually made for Anna, as I hardly ever got sick due to the fact that the cold never bothered me, but I knew that it was impossible to feel bad while eating a bowl of Mom's special soup. That was how I often knew that Anna had gotten sick after her accident: Mom would bring a bowl of her soup to me in my room."

"You're right," Anna said after coming over to smell the cooking soup as well, "It does smell like Mom's."

"Why would she bring her soup into your room?" Toph asked her, "Don't tell me they kept you locked in there."

"Actually no, Toph," Anna replied, "I kept myself locked in there."

"Why is that?" Aang asked her in concern.

"When we were younger, Anna and I would often use my gift to turn the ballroom into our indoor winter playground," Elsa explained, "One day Anna had leapt from an exceptionally high snowdrift. I tried to catch her with my powers, but I'd accidentally hit her in the head instead. If my parents hadn't gotten Anna to the trolls when they had, Anna might have died. They saved her, but it had left a streak of white in her hair as a reminder of that day. After that, I kept myself locked in my room to ensure that if I ever lost control of my powers again nobody would be hurt by them."

"What white streak?" Sokka asked as he examined Anna's head from every angle before Katara smacked him away again.

"Anna's streak in her hair went away the day after my coronation, the day she had nearly died. Again, by my power," Elsa said morosely, "If you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about that right now."

"I understand," Aang told her sympathetically, "As the Avatar, I'm supposed to learn to master the bending of all four elements, but I'm supposed to learn them in the order of the cycle: Air, Water, Earth, then Fire. However, while I was still learning Water, I one day came across a General who had taught many of the Fire Nation's soldiers before he deserted their army over a difference in ideals. I knew that the chances of me coming across someone else who would willingly teach me firebending was almost nonexistent, considering the entire nation was out to get me, so I insisted on his teaching me even though he tried to warn me I wasn't ready. Because I attempted to do it out of order, I lost control and burned Katara. After that, I swore I never would firebend again."

"Sounds like we both have had difficulties with our powers," Elsa told him sympathetically, "But I recently had some little friends of mine tell me that I shouldn't be afraid of my gifts, that to deny them would be to deny part of myself. I think that this is as good advice for you as it was for myself. I think that your problem was that you got ahead of yourself, but it sounds like there's a lot riding on you mastering your gift. Once you've gotten Earth down you should try Fire again."

"Of course you have a while before you need to worry about that," Toph said as she came up and punched Aang in the arm, "You've still got miles to go before I deem you ready, Twinkle Toes. Now come on, Tinkle Britches, let's stop yammering already. That soup smells like it's done, and I'm hungry."

As Elsa served up the soup in ice bowls, Sokka looked concerned as he accepted his, asking, "Won't the hot soup cause these to melt?"

"They won't melt unless I allow them to," Elsa said with a significant look in his direction, "so I would advise against annoying me or distracting me with lame jokes."

Sokka then took his soup and sipped it in silence. Once the soup was distributed to everyone, with Aang sitting down with his vegetables, Elsa took her own bowl and sat down with the rest of them. As she began to eat, Katara spoke up and said, "I couldn't help but notice that when you spoke of your mother you would talk about her in the past tense. Did something happen?"

"Yes," Elsa told them, "About three years ago my parents set sail on a diplomatic mission. At the time I had a bad feeling about it, but it was necessary for my parents to go. It turned out my feelings were right, for they wound up lost at sea."

Sokka and Katara looked at each other and Sokka said in a sympathetic tone, "Sorry. We can relate, for our mother was killed in a Fire Nation raid. We never knew why they killed her, or why they chose to leave right afterwards, but shortly after that time our father sailed out with a few of our warriors to help defend the Earth Kingdom from the Fire Nation."

Elsa nodded, then continued, "If that wasn't bad enough, a few days ago a friend had located and returned my parents home, which normally would be a good thing, but I barely had one day with them before pirates kidnapped me from my home. To make matters worse, when my sister and her boyfriend came after me to rescue me, they wound up lost in time along with me. I understand if the universe feels the need to punish me for something I did wrong, but why does Anna and Kristoff have to be punished along with me!"

Aang shook his head as he said, "The universe doesn't work like that. I know this both as the Avatar as well from personal experience. When I first learned I was the Avatar I wound up losing most of my friends, then when Monk Gyatso insisted to our elders that I needed to grow up with a normal childhood they said that they were going to take me away from him, away from the only friend I had left. I couldn't stand it, so I ran away. As a result, I wound up getting frozen in a glacier for 100 years and wasn't at the temple when the Fire Nation wiped out everyone I cared about, including Gyatso."

"I'm sorry," Elsa told Aang sympathetically, not sure how she would feel having that many deaths on her shoulders.

Aang nodded and continued, "I used to think that was my punishment for being so selfish, that my people's deaths were my fault, that if I stayed I could have saved them. However, Katara pointed out that I would not have made much of a difference as I only knew airbending then, that if I stayed I would have been killed too. She told me that everything happens for a reason, that I was needed now much more than I was then, and I'm thinking she was right. Perhaps the journey you and your friends were sent on was for a purpose too."

"He's right," Anna said, "If the pirates hadn't grabbed you, then we would not have come after you, then who knows what the pirated would have done to the fairies to get their dust."

"Not to mention that Goliath and Elsa would likely have been killed by the Quarrymen if you guys hadn't showed up when you did," Brooklyn added gratefully.

"And things were going seriously downhill at that UN conference before you took the stand," Kristoff chimed in, "If you hadn't been there to talk some sense into those stuffed shirts, then Goliath's clan would be stuck in the middle of a war between the humans and the New Olympians."

"You see, everything happens for a reason," Aang told Elsa, "The universe always seeks to restore balance, not to punish others for minor transgressions."

"When you guys put things like that, how can I argue?" Elsa said with a small smile, "Thanks guys."

Aang drew everyone into a group hug, then they resumed their meal. Brooklyn finished his bowl, then he thanked the others for dinner, standing and turning to face the east just as the rising sun turned him to stone. Then the others agreed that a short nap what do them all some good, so they polished off their bowls and Elsa consigned the empty bowls to dissolve back into the atmosphere.

"Now that's efficient," Katara said with a smile.

"Thanks!" Elsa replied, beaming at the compliment.

"So where do you get the water to do all this? You don't seem to have a water pouch on you," Katara asked her.

"I don't know, " Elsa confessed, "It's just always been there. In fact, I'm not even sure that what I do is even related to your 'waterbending' or Aang's 'airbending'. Anyway I'm the only one I know of back home who can do what I do, and my skills seem pretty much centered on the creation and control of ice, snow, and arctic winds."

"Well, if you'd like, once we've rested a bit we can try and see just what it is you actually can do," Katara offered, "You can join in on Aang's training sessions with Toph and me, and he can also teach you some of his airbending techniques, see if you're able to perform any of them. It's possible we might not learn anything significant if you're only going to be with us for today, but you might possibly learn something important about yourself, and even a little knowledge is better than none at all."

Elsa nodded her head and said, "Sounds good." Then they set up their sleeping areas. Toph used her gift to create a tent from bedrock and crawl inside while Sokka and Katara each slipped inside their sleeping bags. Aang curled up next to Appa while Anna and Kristoff did the same next to Sven, and Elsa noticed that Kristoff took care to choose the side that put him between Sven and Sokka, keeping his pick within arm's reach. Elsa herself chose to create a soft blanket of frost on the ground to lay on, also making a sleeping mask of frost to block out the light of the brightening day before laying down to rest.

* * *

When Elsa awoke she felt like a long time had passed, but when she saw the position of the sun in the sky she determined only about four hours had passed. She looked around but only saw Sokka munching on a bit of the leftover meat that had been cured. He glanced over when he heard her stir and said, "You're awake. The others wanted to get you up earlier, but your sister insisted you needed the rest, that you've been though a lot."

"I see," Elsa responded, wishing that Anna had let them wake her, as she wanted to get as early a start on their day as possible, to get them back home. She had expected Sokka to say more about what's going on, but when she focused on him again she saw that he was looking away from her again, focused on his meat. "I get the feeling that you don't care for me very much," Elsa observed.

Sokka set his meat down for a moment, then he looked at her remorsefully as he said, "It's not that. It's just that when I first saw you, you reminded me a lot of my old girlfriend."

"Yue?" Elsa guessed, recalling her being mentioned the other day, "The girl who became the spirit of the moon?"

"Yeah, her," Sokka said, still looking down, "When she was born Princess Yue was very sick, so the Moon Spirit Tui gave her part of its life force to save her life, a side-effect of which her dark hair turned white. Then when the Fire Nation invaded the Northern Water Tribe, Admiral Zhao killed Tui's mortal form in order to permanently depower all waterbenders and make their conquest inevitable. Yue, however, knew that she could save her people so she sacrificed her life to do so, giving back the life force Tui had given her. When she did so, Yue became the Moon Spirit. My greatest regret was that I was unable to protect her."

"It sounds like she made the choice herself, so I'm not sure what you have to feel guilty about," Elsa told him.

"If I had been able to stop Admiral Zhao from killing Tui, then Yue would not have to had given her life," Sokka explained, "I've presented myself as a great warrior all this time, but I was unable to stop him even though I was right there."

"I can relate to that somewhat," Elsa told him, "Hans, Anna's fiancée at the time, told me that a burst of power I'd unwittingly released earlier had struck Anna in the heart, and that despite his best attempts to save her she froze to death from the inside. It wasn't until later that I learned that he was lying about trying to save my sister, that he wanted me dead so he could take the throne as a hero, and that he'd merely assumed that Anna was dead, but at the time my despair left me vulnerable to his attack. Even if I knew he was preparing to kill me, I would have welcomed death in that moment. However, my sister was still alive, though just barely, when she saw us on the snow covered ice. She could have saved herself by having Kristoff kiss her, but instead she chose to sacrifice her chance at life in order to save mine. Even though it turned out alright in the end, her 'sacrifice' saving her own life as well as mine, I still carry the guilt that I had placed her life in danger in the first place, that my falling for Hans' tricks had necessitated her having to choose saving my life over her own."

"It never gets easier, does it?" Sokka asked her, "Having other people give their lives to protect you, even though you should be able to protect them?"

"No, I suppose it doesn't," Elsa told him.

"I can't make any promises, as sarcasm is a big part of my nature," Sokka told her, "but I'll try to lighten up while you're here."

"Thanks, I appreciate that," Elsa replied with a smile. Elsa then followed Sokka's directions to where Anna and Elsa were watching Aang wearing a blindfold and dodging earth and water attacks being thrown by Toph and Katara, then countering with the same.

"What's going on?" Elsa whispered to her sister, "Why's Aang wearing a blindfold?"

"Toph's teaching him how to see using earthbending," Anna told her in as low a voice, "that way when an enemy attacks him from somewhere he can't see them with his eyes he'll still be able to avoid their attacks."

"Tinkle Britches, you're here," Toph called out from her distant position, and Elsa smiled ruefully at the subtle reminder of how good the blind earthbender's ears were, "Are you ready to enroll into the school of hard knocks?"

Elsa chuckled as she said, "I thought I might take in one quick lesson. If nothing else, it'll serve as a decent workout."

After removing his blindfold, Aang decided he'd go first. He showed her a few airbending moves, but even though the actions did seem to further her connection to her gifts, the winds she summoned didn't seem to have any connection to the moves she used. Aang assured her that it didn't mean anything, as it often took years to master the forms, to learn the control needed to earn one's airbending tattoos (which he indicated as the arrows on his own body).

Of course he seemed to get a kick when she tried to copy his air scooter move and instead created a giant snowball, that is until she challenged him to a race. For a while he had the edge on her in speed, his air scooter not as impeded by the terrain as her 'snow scooter' (as Aang called it), until she changed the snowball into ice and began icing the ground in front of her. Of course Aang claimed she was cheating (though he was laughing when he said it), but Elsa came out the winner.

Next up was Katara. While Elsa had certain expectations as to how this training would go, she found that learning from someone who had read about this technique from an old scroll was a far cry from being taught by someone was themselves taught by an actual master of the art. However, even though she found Katara's techniques as relaxing as when she was practicing them under the tutelage of Demona, Elsa was similarly unable to control water in its liquid form.

After Katara gave Elsa similar reassurances as Aang that it wasn't long enough for her to determine her proficiency (or lack thereof) of waterbending, Toph then stepped up to bat, and Elsa's previous sessions with Aang and Katara hadn't prepared her for this pint-sized taskmaster. After a mere couple of hours of practice, Elsa's irritation with Toph's constant yelling and her frustration of not affecting the earth in the slightest rose to a point where Elsa angrily stamped her foot, unwittingly causing a slab of ice to form and grow under Toph's feet with such speed and force that it launched her high into the air. Her heart racing in panic, Elsa changed the ice slab into a huge pile of snow just in time to catch the girl safely.

"I'm so sorry about that!" Elsa said as she raced forward to help Toph out of the snowdrift, "Are you okay?"

As she got close enough, Toph's small fist burst out of the pile and punched Elsa painfully in the arm, but Toph was wearing a smile as she emerged from the drift as she said, "Not bad there, Miss Tinkle Britches! That wasn't exactly earthbending, but you still have pretty good technique there. Definitely more powerful than that of Madame Fussy Britches over there. I imagine that given enough time, and assuming you have the capacity, I could make you the second greatest earthbender in the world."

"Thanks for that, but even if you're right about me I can't stay," Elsa told her, "There are people back home who need me, and I can't risk anything happening to Anna or Kristoff by staying here any longer than I absolutely have to."

"Still, we ought to wait until nightfall, when Brooklyn wakes up again, so we can fly the last leg to the shrine," Aang told her.

"Maybe," Elsa replied to him, "Or maybe we don't have to. Aang, didn't you say as we got here that we weren't far from this shine?"

"It's maybe an hour's walk up this slope," Aang told her, "Of course that's not accounting for carrying something as heavy as Brooklyn. Even if any of us were strong enough to try to do so, or even to put him in Appa's saddle, I don't think we should try to do so. Didn't you say that he would die if he gets dropped and broken?"

"That's right," Elsa said, then she added with a smile, "but I have another idea."

Arriving back at the campsite, Elsa put her idea into effect. Recalling how she had formed her ice palace years ago, she concentrated and caused a slab of ice to form under Brooklyn's feet, at the same time having tendrils of ice grow inward from the sides towards him to stabilize and hold him in place. Then ice tendrils grew and branched from the top and bottom of the slab until everyone was gazing at the elaborate ice sleigh Elsa had created before their eyes.

"That's pretty good," Kristoff complimented her, "If you ever decide to retire as Queen, you could make a good living in the sleigh construction business."

"But will Brooklyn be safe enough being transported like that?" Katara asked them in concern, "And will you guys be able to keep up with Appa?"

"He's secured nice and tight, and I can make it so the trip there is smooth and jolt free, so he's fine," Elsa assured them, "The main question is whether you not _you_ guys can keep up with _me._"

* * *

A short time later, a trio of figures are standing concealed as one of them using a spyglass watches as Aang and the others use a small ice sled to move a winged statue into a cave on the side of the mountain.

"Why did we have to leave the mongoose dragons at the base of the mountain and walk all this way?" Mai complained, "There are plenty of trees we could have tethered to them here, and it took so long to get here."

"Because we're trying to sneak up on them, Mai," Azula hissed at her angrily but quietly, "As quick footed as the mongoose dragons are, that blind girl would have still heard their heavy footsteps and our element of surprise would have been lost! We're just lucky that she hadn't picked up on your big mouth!"

Mai looked abashed as Ty Lee curiously whispered, "They seem to have added another hottie to their group, but why do you think they're taking such care in moving that statue?"

"Who knows?" Azula replied in a low voice that conveyed her disinterest, "Maybe it's important for some religious ceremony of theirs. Doesn't matter, it's the Avatar and that white-haired waterbender we're after. From the way the others seemed to be training her, it would appear that the Avatar and his friends thing that girl might be another Avatar, which is another reason we need to proceed carefully. That cave has no other exits, but it would still be foolish to charge in against so many powerful benders, particularly when at least one of them is the Avatar."

"So what will we do?" Ty Lee asked her.

"For now we'll watch and wait," Azula answered her, "I'm sure that soon enough we'll get an opportunity to reduce their numbers and even the odds. Then, with the others cornered with no where to run, it's only a matter of time before the Avatar and the waterbender are ours."

"You're so smart on confident, Azula!" Ty Lee praised her, then she asked her, "But what about the others?"

"The capture of the Avatar and the one with silver hair are our only objectives here," Azula replied with a cold smile, "The rest of them are expendable."


	4. Chapter 4: Cornered

**Cornered**

As they entered the cave, Elsa and Anna gasped at the natural beauty surrounding them. On the surface it was nothing more than a naturally formed cave, its rough hewn walls showing no sign that human hands had tried to expand or tame them. However, whereas most caves like this would be black as pitch inside, this one was lit by glowing green crystals emerging sporadically from the walls, floor and ceiling, their combined luminescence casting shadows that moved and shifted over the walls of the cave, giving the illusion that they were alive. It was both mesmerizing and unsettling, the beauty of this place made them want to stay forever, but they got a strong feeling they didn't belong there. No human did.

The only thing in here that was not a natural formation was an altar situated in the center of the floor. Simply carved and polished to perfection, this piece gave this place an air of supreme importance. The main detractors (which added to the wrong feeling of this place) were the symmetrical gouge marks on the altar, the scorch marks on it, and the thick layer of dust on top.

As everyone looked around, Sokka said in a sarcastic tone that was uniquely his own, "What a surprise, a completely empty cave. This certainly hasn't been a waste of everyone's time."

"Sokka!" Katara chided him.

"It's not completely empty. I'm sure that he's around here somewhere," Aang insisted, then he started calling out, "Aion! Hello, you here? It's me, Aang! I have some friends here who could really use your help!"

"Aang, stop," Sokka gently said as he placed his hand on his shoulder, "I know that you really wanted to help Elsa and her friends, but it's been over 100 years since you last saw Aion here, right? You know from your experience at the Southern Air Temple how much things can change in that amount of time. I'm sorry, but judging from the looks of that altar the Fire Nation may have killed Aion the same way they killed Tui."

When Aang turned his head to look at Sokka, his lip slightly trembling, Katara marched up to Sokka and practically growled at him, "Sokka? Can I talk to you for a moment….alone?" Then she grabbed him by the ear and dragged him out of the cave, Sokka complaining the whole way.

"Well that was pretty callous of him!" Anna Said scowling in the direction Sokka went, then she turned to Aang and said in concern, "I though he was supposed to be your friend."

Elsa sighed as she came to the conclusion that Sokka might be right, that Aang had been mistaken when he identified the force that came out of the broken Phoenix Gate as his spirit friend Aion. The clues in this place indicate that something bad may well have happened here, and the dust indicated nobody has been here for a long time. She placed a hand on Anna's shoulder and said softly, "Come on. I think we may need to find another way home."

"I don't understand! He must be here!" Aang exclaimed, "He has to be!"

"Aang," Elsa said comfortingly, "You don't think…what Sokka said…?"

"No!" Aang insisted looking right at her, "That would be impossible! If Aion had been killed, it would have been a disaster even worse than when Tui was killed! Day and night would blur together and be indistinguishable from one another, Fall would come after Spring and before Summer, people would be born old and die young, it would be complete chaos! The fact that time still works in order is proof in itself that Aion is still alive!"

"Then where is he?" Elsa asked him.

"I don't know," Aang admitted, then he sat on the ground Indian-style and added, "but I know where to start looking."

"What are you doing?" Elsa asked him.

"I'm going to enter the Spirit World," Aang told her, "It's possible that Aion might currently be there, and even if he isn't, Avatar Roku or someone else there might know where he is." Then Aang closed his eyes, took a few slow and deep breaths, then his tattoos began to glow even brighter than the crystals in this cave.

After a few moments of just looking at Aang in his meditative state, Anna quietly asked, "Do you think Aang really will find Aion, and that he'll help get us home?"

Elsa didn't know how to answer. A few moments ago she'd been convinced that Sokka had come to the right conclusion, even if he'd said it a little too bluntly. However, Elsa could not deny that Aang's counter-argument made a lot of sense as well. Before Elsa could decide what answer to give Anna, Toph stiffened and whirled to face the cave entrance, shifting into her combat ready stance as she said, "Something's going on outside!"

As Elsa and the others whirled to face the cave entrance, Elsa subconsciously shifting into the fighting stance Demona had taught her, she saw a trio of figures appear silhouetted against the light of the late-afternoon sun. Two of the figures appeared to be distorted at first until they stepped inside the cave, then Elsa was able to make out that they were a trio of young ladies wearing red outfits (which Elsa guessed meant they were associated with the Fire Nation), and that the taller one had been dragging in Sokka while the shorter one dragged in Katara. As the ladies deposited their captives on the cave floor, where they lied unmoving, Elsa gave the intruders a hard look as she demanded, "Who are you? What have you done to them?"

"From what I can feel of their breathing and heartbeats it would seem that Sokka and Katara were chi-blocked by Ty Lee, the shorter girl on the right," Toph explained to her, "I hear she looks sweet and innocent, but don't let that fool you, and whatever you do don't let her touch you, or else you'll end up drooling on the ground like Sokka there."

"Hey, I resemble that remark!" Sokka mumbled around the puddle of drool forming around his face on the ground.

"The taller one on the right is Mai, and she's pretty good with her darts and throwing knives," Toph continued, "but the one you really need to be wary of is Princess Azula in the center. She's probably the second most dangerous firebender next to her father, Firelord Ozai."

"Thanks for that wonderful introduction," Azula said with a smirk, "now why don't you go play in the mud or something, little girl."

Elsa felt Toph tensing up, so she placed a cautionary hand on Toph's shoulder as she kept her own tone even as she asked Azula, "What do you want?"

"Ah, you must be the waterbender my men had told me so much about," Azula said with a raised eyebrow, "I've come on behalf of my father to invite you and the Avatar to make a personal appearance at our palace."

"That's very gracious of you," Elsa responded in a cool tone, though she observed the princess through narrowed eyes, "As Aang is currently indisposed, however, I feel obligated on behalf of him and myself to decline your offer, as Aang still has business here, and my friends and I were just preparing to return home."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Azula told her in the same tone she used before, "Perhaps I can persuade you by putting it another way." Then Azula began a quick series of movements. Through her previous experience against the Rough Rhinos and Toph's earlier warning, Elsa guess Azula was preparing a fire blast, so she countered immediately with her own ice blast. As the two attacks collided in mid air and the cave filled with steam, Elsa was surprised that not only was Azula's fire blue as opposed to the other firebenders' orange flame, but her attacks were more intense as well, easily a match for Elsa's ice.

"Well, peasant, it seems that my men weren't entirely exaggerating about you," Azula said to her in a tone of grudging respect, and Elsa felt simultaneously annoyed and amused that this princess would refer to her as such, "Mai, Ty Lee, you two focus on taking the others out. This one's mine." Then Azula enveloped her hands in her blue flames as she charged, and Elsa covered her forearms in her clawed ice gauntlets as she met her charge, then sparks flew around the room as their blows collided.

* * *

Left behind and unable to move, Sokka and Katara watch the various battles taking place around the immobile Aang: Elsa matching Azula blow-for-blow, Ty Lee attempting to get close enough to chi-block Toph but instead is kept busy dodging Toph's attacks, and Mai taking on both Anna and Kristoff at once.

"You know, they wouldn't have gotten the drop on us if you hadn't been busy yelling at me," Sokka told Katara.

"Shut up, Sokka," Katara retorted.

* * *

Even though she had the ice gauntlets on her hands providing some extra cooling relief, Elsa found herself sweating in this fight. Of course it wasn't entirely from the heat, which was more intense than anything she'd ever experienced. The fact is that this Princess Azula was a greater class of warrior than she had ever faced before, worlds above the Quarrymen or the pirates of the Jolly Roger, greater even than the soldiers the Duke of Weselton had brought to invade her home. Elsa imagined that only Demona might have had an edge in combat skills due to the fact that she had many more years of experience than this fire princess, but since Elsa was only sparring with her at the time it wasn't like Demona was giving it her all. Still, Elsa was grateful for the time Demona had spent honing her skills, otherwise Elsa might have lost this fight within the first five minutes, the way she saw Kristoff being taken out of the battle by being pinned to the wall by Mai's darts before she turned all her focus to Anna.

"You know, peasant, you're not a half bad fighter," Azula said in between blows of her fiery hands and feet, "Too bad you're on the wrong side of this conflict, I could have used someone like you on my team."

"Yeah, about this 'peasant' business…." Elsa said as she blocked Azula's attacks, then she countered with a haymaker that connected with the side of Azula's face, spinning her around and knocking her back a few feet. As Azula cradled the sore side of her face and glared at Elsa, Elsa straightened and looked upon her imperiously as she continued, "…my name is Elsa, Queen of Arendelle, and even if I had any inclination to remain here rather than returning home I doubt that I would ever join forces with the likes of you."

"Queen, huh?" Azula snarled, a crazed look in her eye and a smile on her face that did not denote happiness, "Well try this on for size, Your Highness!"

Azula then began a series of movements, and Elsa was shocked to see electrical sparks gathering at the princess's fingertips. _Lightning?_ Elsa thought to herself, _This girl can use lightning too? _ Thinking quickly, Elsa widened and flattened a section of her gauntlet on her right forearm, changing it into a thick ice shield just as Azula unleashed a blinding bolt. Raising the shield at a 45 degree angle from herself, Elsa blocked the shot, the bolt skittering across its smooth, damp surface. Even though Elsa was driven back a few inches from the force, and her ice shield cracked from the blow, the lightning was deflected and crashed into the wall beside them.

Elsa thought that Azula might try some other tactics, like forcing Elsa to defend from multiple angles by magnetically redirecting the flight path of Mai's darts and daggers towards her, but instead Azula just fired off bolt after bolt at her, and each of those strikes took enough time to prepare that Elsa was able to construct an ice barricade to block each one. Finally, Elsa had enough, and she stamped her foot the way she did during her training session with Toph, causing an ice block to spring up under Azula's feet, bouncing her off the ceiling and back onto the block before she landed on the floor.

As Azula slowly got back onto her hands and knees, Elsa looked down at her in both irritation and pity as she said, "How sad, Princess. It seems that you're all power and no talent. I don't know why, but I expected more from the heir to a conquering nation. Even though he lacks your ability of fire, Julian can do much more with lightning alone than you've shown with your little sparks."

This statement seemed to greatly anger Azula, as she lifted her head and glared at Elsa as she bellowed, "I'll show you lightning!"

Azula then sprang to her feet and began gathering energy for her lightning again. As Azula was taking longer, apparently to fire a stronger bolt this time, Elsa decided she was going to end this fight, so she gathered the energy she'd need to quick freeze Azula in a full-body ice cast. Before Elsa could unleash her attack, however, she was distracted by a loud clang somewhat behind her. Turning her head, Elsa saw that the noise was caused by Anna blocking one of Mai's thrown daggers with her frying pan. Noticing Elsa's distraction, Azula took advantage of her moment of vulnerability as she aimed and fired. Hearing the blast, Elsa turned back with the intention of blocking it, but she saw that it wasn't aimed at her: Azula was aiming at Anna!

"Nooooo!" Elsa screamed in desperation as she unleashed her prepared blast at the ground in the path of Azula's bolt. However, as fast as Elsa's ice stalactite grew it wasn't fast enough, the tip barely catching the bolt, and rather than blocking the lightning it instead forked: one branch reaching towards Mai, the other towards Anna. Mai had heard the blast and she dropped her daggers as she fell towards the ground. Anna likewise tried to duck the bolt, but she neglected to drop her skillet and the lightning followed it to her. As Anna screamed in agony of the electricity coursing though her body, Elsa thought her own heart would tear apart as well. Though her focus was not in that direction, Elsa noticed in her periphery vision that Anna's cries had shocked Toph into stillness as well, leaving Ty Lee an opening in which she flipped over Toph and immobilized her with a pinch at the base of her neck.

It seemed like it lasted for an eternity, but after only a couple of moments the lightning ceased and Anna collapsed forward, her eyes still wide open and her mouth still frozen in a rictus of pain even as Elsa caught her before she could collapse completely. "No, no, no, no, please Anna, no…" Elsa pleaded with her sister, praying that this was some horrible dream or a lying vision. However, the heat coming off of the frying pan even as Anna's body cooled, as well as the burn marks on the hands that still gripped the skillet tightly, made this moment all too real. Anna, her beloved sister, was dead, far beyond any act of true love to bring her back.

As Elsa hugged her sister's body tightly and her tears threatened to flow, a new sound brought her back from the edge of hysteria: Azula's laughter. This wasn't like the annoying cackle of Sokka or the confident blast of Toph, this was the laugh of someone who delighted in the pain she inflicted on others, both physical and emotional, the laugh of someone who had no respect for human life. There was a touch of madness in this laugh as well, but that part didn't matter as much to Elsa. This psycho princess had ripped her sister away from her forever and was laughing about it! Elsa wasn't sure if it was possible for her to freeze her own heart, but it certainly felt that way as she lowered her sister to the ground, and she embraced the onrush of strength she'd never felt before.

"You. Will. Pay!" Elsa bellowed, whirling towards Azula with the last word, and the world before her eyes exploded in a field of white.

* * *

From their positions on the ground, Katara and Sokka saw as a blizzard impossibly erupted inside of this cave. This blizzard wasn't composed of the snow they'd associated with their new friend, however: this was a whiteout of hail, with even a single hailstone being barely small enough for Sokka to close his hand around (assuming he could move his hands to do so, that is). The only thing they could see with any clarity in this room besides each other was Azula, due to her generating a flame shield with one hand as she futilely fired a couple of lightning bolts with the other. Beyond that, the only thing they caught glimpses of were Aang's glowing tattoos and Elsa's glowing eyes.

"Did what happen what I think just happened?" Katara bellowed over the sound of the storm.

"Yeah," Sokka hollered back, "Looks like Her Highness just entered the Avatar State, and right now she's scaring me even more than Aang and Azula combined!"

* * *

As Elsa stood in the midst of a Ragnarok of her own making, she felt her own pain and rage threatening to consume her, to utterly destroy who she is. Elsa no longer cared, however. Elsa's main reason to go on, her largest reason for wanting to return home was now gone and lying on this earthen floor. All that mattered to her now was ridding the world of this murderous wretch before her.

Elsa saw Azula trying a couple of times to strike her with lightning, neither bolt coming close to touching her, before she put all of her efforts in sustaining the fire shield before her. Elsa noticed that while the force of the wind kept her back, Azula's fire shield was able to prevent a single hailstone from passing though, a testament to her power.

_Okay, let's see you block this then, witch!_ Elsa thought furiously as she raised both hands over her head and started to form a giant hailstone above her. The deadly ice sphere was about 4 1/2 feet in diameter when Elsa felt a glancing blow on her right arm. Elsa briefly thought one of her own hailstones had struck her, but then she realized the blow came from the wrong direction. Then she felt another blow that connected solidly with that arm this time, and her entire arm went numb. As her arm fell to her side, her power lever dropping with it, Elsa felt the cave shudder when the large hailstone fell to the ground to her right. Elsa then felt a quick series of jabs strike her in various other places, and then she no longer had any strength even to stand.

The storm fell silent as Elsa collapsed onto her haunches, and she now saw clearly Ty Lee standing between her and Azula, the acrobatic girl's eyes wide in fear as she remained in her fighting stance. As she raged against herself for having been so focused on Azula that she forgot about her allies, Elsa saw Azula look at Ty Lee and say, "Good work there, Ty Lee." Ty Lee did not smile or look at her friend, but instead nodded in acknowledgement as she kept her fearful gaze locked on Elsa.

"You're monsters!" Kristoff bellowed at Azula and her friends as he struggled to free himself from the wall.

"Yeah, I know," Azula acknowledged dismissively, even as Mai gave Azula a dirty look (possibly recalling that she herself was nearly struck by Azula's lightning) as she walked over to tie up the still-meditating Aang. Azula then took a couple steps towards Elsa and squatted down in order to look in her eyes as she said, "Well now, your Highness, you certainly have proven to be full of surprises. As dangerous as you've proven to be, I probably ought to end you now, but I won't deny my father the opportunity to meet you. I'm sure that he'll have plenty of questions to ask of you, such as where this Arendelle of yours is and how many more like you there are."

As she snarled in response, Elsa realized that she still had a connection to her powers. It wasn't as strong as it was earlier, nor was it as it normally was, but there was still something she could do to ensure that this murderess didn't get away with what she'd done. However, Elsa would need a distraction to take Azula's attention away from her while she put her plan into effect. Then she looked past everyone and saw outside the mouth of the cave that the sun was only minutes from setting. _Perfect!_ Elsa thought to herself.

Before Elsa could thing of a way to stall for time until Brooklyn woke up, she heard a painful groan behind her. Craning her head to see, Elsa was shocked speechless to see Anna stirring behind her. _This is impossible!_ Elsa thought in disbelief, now hoping that this _isn't_ just a dream. Pushing herself up slightly from the floor, Anna looked up towards her sister and croaked, "Elsa?"

That was when Elsa saw it: a scorch mark on Anna's blouse where there wasn't one before! Suddenly Elsa recalled something that Julian had said when he was recounting the tragedy of losing his own sibling. "One jolt can stop a heart," he'd told her, "but a second electric jolt can restart it." Elsa realized that one of Azula's stray bolts of lightning had accidentally brought back her sister.

As she focused again at Azula, Elsa saw that the Fire Nation princess was even more puzzled that Elsa was. "Strange," Azula said to Anna, "I thought I'd killed you."

_Azula doesn't realize what her power is capable of!_ Elsa realized. In that way, Azula was very much like Elsa used to be, the way she still is to some extent. This made Elsa almost feeling pity for her, if Azula wasn't a homicidal maniac that is. Then Azula stood up and her fingers began crackling with electricity as she said, "Well I shouldn't leave the job half finished, now should I?"

_NO! Who knows how many more jolts Anna's heart can take? _Elsa's mind cried out in panic, while another part of her consciousness screamed at her, _Distract her!_

"You're just wasting your time," Elsa bluffed in as even and inflectionless voice as she could manage, "My sister and I aren't that easy to kill."

Azula's fingers stopped their crackling as she focused on Elsa and asked, "Just what do you mean?"

"You weren't exactly holding back before when you struck at Anna before, now were you? And yet she's still breathing," Elsa told her matter-of-factly.

"That's only because you weakened my shot before with your ice spike," Azula insisted, "Ty Lee has ensured you won't be able to block me again."

"Then why are you sweating?" Elsa said with a smirk, pleased to see how her bluff was affecting Azula, "Face it, you have never faced anyone like us before. Even now I feel my strength returning, and before long you and your friends will experience what a lake fish does when caught in a flash freeze."

"Then I'll just have to make sure that Ty Lee keeps your chi blocked on your way back to the Fire Nation," Azula told her determinedly, "Then my father can deal with you permanently once he's through with you."

"Even if you could manage to do that, you wouldn't make it more than 20 feet from this place before our guardians tear you to shreds," Elsa said, her smirk even wider.

"You mean those kids?" Azula scoffed, gesturing at Aang's friends and Kristoff, "They're no threat."

"No, I don't mean them," Elsa said still smiling, "My guardians are the things that nightmares are made of, things that would make even your hair turn as white as mine."

"Oh please, now your bluffs are just getting pathetic," Azula said in a mocking tone.

Elsa smiled like the cat who finally ate the canary as she said, "We'll see soon enough if I'm bluffing. You see, sunset is now here, and the first of our guardians comes."

At this pronouncement a loud crack echoes around the cave, causing Azula and her friends to whirl around and face the statue they'd ignored upon entry, Ty Lee yelping as she did so.

"You're in trouble!" Toph called out in a sing-songy voice.

As they watched the cracks grow ever more numerous, Ty Lee stammered, "Wh-wh-what is that thing!?"

"His name's Brooklyn, and he's a guardian of the night," Elsa told the ladies with a smug tone, "He's a gargoyle."

With that, Brooklyn breaks free of his stone shell, his roar echoing monstrously around the cave as his wings spread wide. As Azula and her friends stared at Brooklyn in shock, Elsa noted that there really was a touch of fear in the princess's eyes.

"Brooklyn!" Elsa called out to him. Fortunately he'd been well trained as a warrior. He only took one moment to assess the situation, to observe the state Elsa and the others were in as well as who was left standing, then he leapt into the fray roaring.

* * *

_This shouldn't be happening!_ Azula thought to herself as she dodged the winged monster's attacks and kept him at bay with her fire blasts, _This should have been a cakewalk! Not only did we take that waterbending peasant and her idiot brother out of the fight before it even began, but also the Avatar hasn't thrown one attack this entire fight, stuck in some meditative trance or something. We should have been able to capture him and that snow queen easily! And where did **this** thing spawn from?_

Azula saw Mai throw her daggers at this creature, but he managed to dodge most of them, with one of the daggers only grazing his arm and drawing a thin line of blood. As the creature angrily turned its attention towards Mai, Ty Lee slipped inside his range and attempted to chi block him, but she was struck from behind with his tail as he twisted away from her blows.

As Ty Lee and Mai settled into an orbit around this thing, staying just out of its claw and tail range while they looked for an opening, Azula said to it, "You may be strong, creature, but there's no way you can take the three of us alone."

"But he's not alone," Azula heard Queen Elsa tell her, and as she turned to look at her what she was going to say got lost in her throat.

"I warned you that Brooklyn was only the first of our guardians," Elsa said, but Azula was not looking at her but rather at the gigantic golem of ice and snow towering over her as it opened its mouth and bellowed wordlessly.

"What do we do now?" Ty Lee asked Azula nervously.

"You two handle the winged freak," Azula told them, "I'll handle the ice beast."

"What!?" Ty Lee exclaimed, but Azula was already in motion, ducking under the swipe of its giant hand and unleashing her fire blast at it.

* * *

Sokka and Katara, still unable to move from Ty Lee's chi blocking them, watch as Mai and Ty Lee attempt to gain the upper hand on the gargoyle while Azula dances around the giant snowman's lumbering attacks, and even though Azula is nimble enough not to get caught, they see that her fire and lightning attacks are apparently just as ineffective against him.

"Hooo, yeah!" Sokka cheered as loudly as he did while watching The Boulder in Earth Rumble 6, though the effect was lessened due to him lying on the stone floor, "Now _that's_ what I call waterbending!"

"You're so lucky I cannot move right now," Katara said to him irritably.

* * *

For Elsa, this battle was her most difficult, as she had to focus all the power she could access in her current state in order to keep Marshmallow from melting under Azula's assault. Elsa supposed that if the princess had realized that she was the reason her attacks were having little effect him Azula would have taken her out by now, as Elsa would not have been able to dodge much less defend herself. As it was, the fact that she was able to both create Marshmallow and sustain him in this heat without moving served as a temporary blessing.

However, unless one of the others who were chi blocked first was able to recover soon, than all of Elsa's efforts would be in vain. As it was, Brooklyn was having trouble keeping going with his numerous superficial wounds inflicted by Mai's blades and one arm knocked out of commission by Ty Lee's attacks. Finally disaster struck as an opening caused by Brooklyn dodging Mai's blades allowed Ty Lee to chi block Brooklyn's other arm. As this just left Brooklyn with his wings, feet and tail to fight with, Elsa figured it was all over.

Brooklyn didn't seem ready to give up, however. In fact, this latest development only seemed to make him even madder, as his eyes were glowing brighter than they ever had before. Then Elsa realized that Brooklyn's eyes weren't actually glowing this time, they were lit with flames! When Brooklyn opened his mouth to roar, a jet of flames shot out, causing Mai and Ty Lee to dodge out of the way. The flames didn't dissipate, however, but instead they gathered together into a ball that hovered for a moment before its form changed into one she'd seen before: it was the bird-like flame entity that had emerged from the Phoenix Gate! It quickly swooped around the cave once raining down embers that seemed to restore the feeling in Elsa's body, as well as restoring the movement in the others affected by Ty Lee's attacks. Azula, recognizing this newcomer to be the larger threat, dodged back out of Marshmallow's reach and unleashed a fire blast at the fiery bird before her. Its body just seemed to absorb the flames she unleashed, however, and with a screech it swooped down upon her, enveloping her and her friends with its wings as it once again became a ball of flame and vanished, taking Azula and company with it.

"Guys? What's going on?" Aang asked as he stirred, his tattoos no longer glowing, "Why am I all tied up?"

"Oh, now you wake up?" Sokka asked him in irritation as he stretched out the kinks in his body and walked over to use his sword to cut Aang's bonds with his sword, and Katara located where her water pouch dropped and hurried over to where Elsa was helping Anna recline on her lap, "It would be a bit more helpful if you were more aware of what's going on here in the physical world while you're on your Spirit World journeys. We could have really used your help when Azula was paying us a visit."

"Wait! Azula was here!?" Aang asked in shocked surprise.

"Yeah, Katara and I were ambushed, then Kristoff got pinned to the wall, then Anna got zapped, then Elsa went all Avatar-glowey, then I got pummeled by hail, then Brooklyn took them on three-to-one, then Elsa made a giant snowman, then Brooklyn belched up a flaming bird…" Sokka rattled off as he ticked the items off on his fingers.

"Wait, Sokka. Slow down," Aang asked of him, "I'm having trouble understanding what you're saying."

"That's okay, it was difficult for us to understand what was going on at the time as well," Katara said to Aang as she used her waterbending to heal the burns on Anna's hands and chest, then she asked Anna, "How does that feel?"

Anna grunted as Katara touched a rather sensitive area, then she smiled and said, "Better, thanks. You're pretty good at this."

Katara returned her smile then she asked Aang, "So did you have any luck? Did you manage to find Aion?"

Aang frowned and said in a disappointed tone, "No. It didn't make any sense, Avatar Roku said that he was already here. He said that we'd brought him here."

**That was because you had, my friend,** Elsa heard a strangely melodic voice rang out in her head, and from the expressions on the others' faces they were hearing it too. As they were looking around for the source, the fiery bird reappeared and perched upon the altar in the middle of the cave.

"Aion!" Aang cried out in delight when he saw this being.

**It is good to see you too again, Aang,** Elsa heard Aion tell him in response, though she could not tell if this 'voice' was male or female.

"Yeah, but were you? I went to the Spirit world to look for you when we didn't find you here," Aang asked him.

"And what did you do with the psycho princess and her two friends?" Sokka asked.

Elsa could almost swear that Aion was smiling, even though he was taking the form of a bird, as he said, **Oh, those three…?**

* * *

Meanwhile, in a familiar wooded area…

Azula and her friends look around them, wondering just what had happened.

"Where are we?" Mai asked the others in her usual tone of voice, "And how did we end up back on our mongoose dragons?"

"I don't know," Ty Lee replied from the back of her own steed, "but I feel that we've been here before."

As she looks down at the forested floor, Azula spots a single white bison hair. Now she recognizes this formation of trees: this is where they'd picked up on the Avatar's trail again! Azula slid from her dragon's back to pick it up, then she looked around to see were the trail led, but all she found was that single hair.

_We've been sent back to where we've started! Azula_ raged internally, then as she struggled to remember who or what had sent them here, she thought in confusion, _Or….had we ever left here? Or… _ Azula could not recall what they've been doing for the last day! All she could see in her head were a series of pictures that did not connect. Azula screamed her frustration into the heavens, her hands flaring up into blue flames that lit up the darkened floor. As she looked back her hands, she found that the hair had been burned to ash, but it didn't matter: the trail had gone cold.

"So, what do we do now?" Mai asked Azula in her bored tone of voice.

Azula regained her composure. She would not look weak in front of her friends. Azula climbed back onto her dragon and said, "We're going to the Serpent's Pass to head up the infiltration team. Once we've tunneled through the walls and conquered Ba Xing Se we'll have an easier time hunting down the Avatar, for there'll be nowhere left for him to hide."

* * *

"You're kidding!" Sokka managed to get out in between laughs, "You did what!?"

**I took them back one minute in time and dropped them and their mongoose dragons back where they had recently picked up on your sky bison's trail, **Aion explained to them again, **Since it's been more than a day since they found it the trail should be all but gone, and the disorientation from the trip should cloud their memories of what they were doing since they were last there. I'd be surprised if a single one of them recalls the way here or of learning about your newest friends.**

"Oh man, this is great!" Sokka exclaimed as he wiped tears of mirth from his eyes, trying to get a hold of himself, "I only wish that I could be there now to see the look on Azula's face!"

"But wait," Aang said in confusion, "Aion, I thought that you were all about maintaining the integrity of time, that you make sure that people and things remain in the time that they belong?"

**Yes, that's true. However, during that minute they were in temporal flux within my form, so dropping them off somewhere else at the start of that minute was perfectly acceptable, **Aion explained to him, S**ometimes, to protect that which you care about, a slight bending of the rules is necessary.**

"You know, Aang, I like this Aion friend of yours!" Toph said with a huge grin on her face, "He's got the right mentality. Rules stink!"

"But this isn't our time, so why are we here?" Anna asked as she sat up fully while Katara put her bending water away, "Weren't you the one who had brought us here?"

"And why didn't you help us out like that before Anna got hurt?" Elsa asked him in an accusatory tone of voice.

**To answer your questions, I must explain somewhat how these events came to be, **Aion told them, **Back when I was a free spirit so to speak, in these days as a matter of fact, I did maintain the integrity of the flow of time, making sure that elements from the past did not influence the future any more than lessons of history naturally do anyway, and vice versa. However, in a time before you were born but after Aang's death, Lord Oberon, son of Queen Mab, desired the ability to travel through time as he wished, so he captured me and bound me to the Phoenix Gate with his magiks.**

"Sounds like this Oberon guy was a real jerk," Sokka said as he picked his teeth with his sword.

"Yeah, I didn't care for him either," Brooklyn agreed.

"But you're the Spirit of Eternity, existing everywhere and everywhen. How did this Oberon capture you?" Aang asked Aion in confusion.

**While I am indeed normally everywhere at every point in time, when I physically manifest to interact with those in the world I am as temporally bound as any of you,** Aion explained, **As such, I cannot physically be in two places at the same point in time. However, like Tui and La, and especially like Lady Tenhai, I had a fascination with beings like you humans, and in my case that fascination stemmed from your ability to shape your own destiny and that of those around you. When Oberon summoned me, I'm afraid to say that my guard was down, and as you know, young gargoyle, Oberon's magiks are quite strong.**

"You said that you could not physically be in two places at the same time," Brooklyn reasoned, "but you were bound to the Phoenix Gate, right? And the Phoenix Gate can be in two places at the same time. In fact, Demona once used it to travel to the past to try and convince her younger self to not give the Gate she'd just stolen to the Archmage or share it with Goliath. How does that work?"

**While I myself cannot exist in two places at the same time, the Phoenix Gate can, and as I was bound to it so too was I forced into those situations, **Aion told him, **The experience was….very straining for me. As it was, it was all I could do to continue to ensure that time flowed the way it is supposed to, and to ensure that the gate wasn't used to significantly change that which is supposed to be. That leads us back to Elsa's and Anna's questions. When the Phoenix Gate, which had been damaged by continuously traveling through the time-stream without a destination and destroyed upon arriving in New York, I was quite beside myself to find myself free again after so long. However, I was still touched by the enchantments that had bound be to the gate, and so I was drawn to the last being who had touched it prior to its destruction: you, Brooklyn.**

"Me?" Brooklyn asked for confirmation.

**Yes,** Aion confirmed, **I apologize for the inconvenience this will cause, but the old magiks that bonded me to the Phoenix Gate, along with the mystical energies from the portal Oberon's child Puck had created to send Elsa and her friends home, now binds me to your mortal form, and if either of us is to be free to return to where we belong we must travel to a time after the Gate's destruction, to a point where the gate no longer exists.**

"So...what? That means that you'll have to take us to some time after the Phoenix Gate was broken?" Brooklyn asked, "That's fine by me. I wasn't looking forward to reliving my past anyway. So long as Lex and the others aren't Hudson's age, turned into killer cyborgs, or dead then I'll be fine sacrificing a couple of years to get home."

**Not exactly,** Aion corrected him, **Fact is that you're the one who will need to take us to that point in time.**

"Me? You're kidding, right?" Brooklyn asked in disbelief.

I** do enjoy a good joke,** Aion told him, **but I'm not joking.**

"Ooh, ooh!" Sokka said excitedly, "If you like jokes, I have a few good ones to share..."

Before Sokka could begin, Aion said, **Sokka, as an eternal being I've heard every joke ever told, including yours, and of the ones you've come up with, past and future, not one would quantify as "good".**

This causes the others to laugh, though Anna winced a bit as she did so, and Toph says "Burn!" as Sokka scowls, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"But seriously, I don't know how you expect me to get us back to my time. I don't exactly have any skill in sorcery," Brooklyn told Aion, then in a tone of disgust he added, "That's Demona's specialty."

"Brooklyn…" Elsa said sadly, though she didn't push any further. She realized that his grudge against the former clan member was rather deep set, and wasn't something she could expect him to get over overnight.

**I understand your confusion and reluctance, Brooklyn, but I am bonded to you now, and while it is sorcery that created that bond my power is not magic any more than the gifts that Queen Elsa wields, or Aang's ability to manipulate the four elements,** Aion told him, **While I am in this time prior to my entrapment I am able to use my gifts freely. However, once we travel past the time I was bound my influence on our travels will once again be restricted until we reach the point were I was freed again. You'll need to learn how to use my power if you wish to return home.**

"But how am I supposed to do that?" Brooklyn asked, looking uncomfortable.

After apparently considering for a moment, Aion told him, **Find the fragments of the destroyed Phoenix Gate scattered throughout the time-stream. It is likely that you will be drawn to those times and places until you learn to guide your journey yourself, just as the Gate was drawn to Puck's portal when it was cast adrift in the time-stream. Each fragment you find will help you gain further access and control over my power.**

"And once we're past where the gate is destroyed, you'll be free and be able to get me the rest of the way back home?" Brooklyn asked for confirmation.

As long as the intact Gate does not exist there, yes, Aion confirmed, Be aware that there are points in the future that the gate has traveled to, and there I'll be just as helpless to aid you as I would be at the moment of the Gate's forging.

"Great," Brooklyn said dryly, then he sighed and smiled wryly has he added, "Well, I'd told Goliath I wanted my own world tour, might as well spice it up the trip across time as well. When do we start?"

"Does this mean you won't be able to help us get home?" Anna asked him.

**I won't be able to get you the whole way there if that's what you're asking, and I doubt you'd want to stay with us while Brooklyn masters the use of my powers, but I can take you a good portion of the way, then before the enchantment prevents me I'll send you as far forward along your timeline as my reach will allow. Once there I'm certain you'll find someone who can get you the rest of the way home,** Aion told Anna. Anna nodded but still looked troubled, so Aion said reassuringly, D**on't fret child, you'll see your home and loved ones soon. This stop will just be a small Hiccup on your journey there. **Aion let out a small chuckle as if he realized he'd unwittingly made a joke, and even though she didn't get it Anna couldn't help giggling as well.

"Do you have to go now?" Sokka asked them in a rather surprisingly pleasant tone of voice, "I'm sure that Aion would be able to take you back any time you want, and we could really use someone like you on Team Avatar."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I really think I should be getting back home," Elsa told them with a smile, "This isn't my time, and I have my own kingdom that needs me, though I think I'll let my father keep running things for one more day after I return, so my sister and I can rest and recover from everything we went through since this journey started. Besides, you don't really need me. Aang's plenty powerful on his own, and with you guys supporting him I know you'll succeed."

"Thank you, Queen Elsa," Aang said as he placed his fists together in a formal bow, which Elsa echoed.

**You truly are a wise Queen, despite your youth, **Aion told her, **Are you ready to go?**

"Just about," she told him, then she turned to Brooklyn and said, "This may be the last chance we'll get to talk, so I have something to ask of you."

Brooklyn sighs and says, "Something tells me that I'm not going to like this request."

"That's possible," Elsa admitted, "When you should make it back to New York, I'd like you to say hi to Elisa and your clan for me, of course, but if you should get a chance I'd like you to tell Demona that I'll be missing her friendship, that I wish her peace and happiness the rest of her days."

"I personally doubt that it'll matter much to her," Brooklyn replied, "but if I can get her to stop trying to kill me for two seconds then I'll deliver your message to her."

"That's all I ask. Thanks," Elsa said gratefully to Brooklyn, then she turned to Aion and said, "I'm ready. Let's go."

"Goodbye everyone!" Anna said as she waved to them, "Kick that Azula's butt for me!"

"You got it!" Katara agreed with a nod.

Then, as Sven trotted up to join the group, Aion folded his massive wings around them and with a flash they were gone.

"I'm gonna miss them," Katara said as she stared at the empty space Elsa and the others were just a moment ago.

"Me too," Aang agreed, "Elsa just gave me a great idea, though. Since we all have been working so hard, why don't we take a break for a day or two, just go see or do things that we want to? It could be like a mini-vacation!"

"What!?" Sokka exclaimed, "We just went a couple of days out of our way to help Elsa and her friends! We don't have time for mini-vacations!"

"Sounds like a great idea," Katara told Aang, "A little relaxation time should be just what we need to refresh our energies and get back on track. What do you think, Toph?"

"Eh, sure. Why not?" Toph agreed noncommittally.

"Then it's settled," Katara pronounced, "Aang, since it was your idea, why don't you go first? Where would you like to spend your mini-vacation?"

Aang pulls out a map and starts to leave the cave with the girls following as he says, "There's this really neat place I'd like to show you near the Si Wong Dessert…"

"Why does no one listen to me!?" Sokka exclaims, then he picks up his dropped sword and follows them disgruntled out of the cave.

* * *

_Back in Arendelle..._

Elsa and Anna's mother and father are staring sadly out the window of the palace when a knock at the door to their room is preceded by a guard letting himself in. When they turn towards him, the guard bows and says, "Reporting from the change of the guard, my lord. I'm afraid that there's still no sign of any of them."

"I see," Elsa's father sighed, then he looked the guard squarely in the eye and said, "I want you to prepare every one of our sea worthy ships to sail at first light, and round any civilian sailors who'd like to volunteer as well. We'll scour every corner of the seven seas until we find our daughters or those pirates."

"But sir, if we send out all of our ships, won't leave the kingdom vulnerable?" The guard asked him.

"Your Queen and Princess are currently missing," Elsa's father told him, "Without any other heirs, this kingdom likely won't have much more of a future anyway."

"Understood, my Lord," the guard acknowledged with a bow, "I'll see to it that the preparations are made right away."

"One more thing," Elsa's father added before the guard could leave, "Should any of our civilian volunteers locate the pirate vessel they are not to confront the pirates themselves. Instead they are to send the coordinates of where they were found to one of our military vessels. Dismissed."

The guard bowed one more time, then he left the room. Elsa's father then turned to his wife, who had tears in her eyes as she said, "Oh dear, what if we never find them? Did we get saved from drowning at sea just to lose our daughters all over again?"

"You mustn't lose hope, my love," Elsa's father said with more confidence than he felt, "Don't forget, this is Elsa that we're talking about. Those dastardly pirates might have caught her by surprise, but I imagine that she's making them regret ever having taken her captive by now, if she hasn't already. You'll see, Elsa and Anna will find each other and will make it back home. After all, they have the blood of heroes in their veins. You remember when you used to tell me how your ancestors helped end a century-long war?"

"But dear, that's just a legend!" his wife told him, "An old tale that was passed down in my family! There never was any trace found of that civilization they supposedly saved."

"But in every legend lies the seeds of truth," Elsa's father countered, "After all, didn't one of your ancestors, the one you were named for, have the ability to control water, including making ice and snow like Elsa does, while the other had those skills and more, including generating winds?"

"But that's all she can do, make ice, snow and winds," his wife insisted, "She never shown any control over any other form of water, nor that of fire and earth which my ancestor supposedly could also manage. In fact, we've never encountered anyone who could perform the feats in those tales besides our Elsa."

"Well maybe you're right, and it is just a legend," Elsa's father conceded, "but it is still a good one, and tales of deeds can inspire others just as fervently even if there's no basis of fact in them. Our daughters are just as brave and strong as the heroes in those tales, so even if we don't find them first I know they'll find a way free of those pirates and make it home."

His wife sighed and said, "I suppose you're right."

Elsa's father nodded, then he kissed her on the forehead and said, "We will see our daughters again, but for now you need your rest. Head off to bed now, and I'll join you shortly." His wife smiled slightly and nodded, turning towards the adjoining sleeping quarters as he said softly, "Sleep well, my dear Katara."

_up next: Drago's Revenge, and be sure to check out its one-shot prequel: The Shield._


End file.
